266 PHYSIOLOGY. 



these circumstances tend to prove that the site of 

 smelling is in or near the mouth. This subject 

 will be resumed in Chap. XXXII. 



ORGANS OF RESPIRATION. 



The respiration of bees is performed through 

 several little orifices, called stigmata, spiracles, or 

 breathing pores, situated in the sides of their 

 bodies, behind their wings. REAUMUR was of 

 opinion that inspiration was performed through the 

 spiracles, and expiration through the mouth ; but 

 BONNET proved satisfactorily that neither inspira- 

 tion nor expiration takes place through the mouth. 

 The spiracles are connected with a system of air 

 vessels called trachece, ramifying through every 

 part of the frame, and serving the purpose of 

 lungs. From the absence of lungs, ARISTOTLE and 

 the ancients in general thought that insects did 

 not breathe. PLINY may perhaps be excepted, for 

 he has observed that dipping bees in honey or 

 oil deprives them of life ; this immersion stops up 

 the mouths of the spiracles. Modern physiolo- 

 gists have however incontestibly proved that they 

 do breathe. " Life and flame," says CUVIER, "have 

 this in common, that neither the one nor the other 

 can subsist without air ; all living beings, from 

 man to the most minute vegetable, perish when 

 they are utterly deprived of that fluid." HUBER 

 detected the existence of the stigmata or breathing 



