PHYSIOLOGY. 267 



pores, by immersing different portions of a bee 

 in water, and finally by total immersion, upon 

 which he observed that bubbles of air attached 

 themselves for some time to the orifices of the 

 stigmata, which alternately appeared and receded, 

 till their increased bulk enabled them to overcome 

 the resistance of inspiration and rise to the sur- 

 face. These respiratory organs escaped the ob- 

 servation of SWAMMERDAM. 



Air is equally necessary to insects in the egg 

 state : SPALL ANZANI found that their eggs could 

 not be hatched in small close vessels, though all 

 other circumstances were favourable to a develop- 

 ment. The eggs of the hive-bee, whilst in the 

 ovaries, have a net-work of air-vessels spread 

 over their surfaces ; these were discovered by 

 Swammerdam : from analogy, we may reasonably 

 conclude, that such a provision obtains generally. 



The closeness of a hive, and its having no 

 direct current of air through it, may favour a 

 belief that bees can exist in any atmosphere, 

 however vitiated, and may seem also to confirm 

 the opinion of the ancients, that they have no 

 particular system of respiratory organs. But 

 M. HUBER and SON have proved that they breathe 

 like other animals, that they are speedily deprived 

 of life, if the process of respiration be arrested ; 

 so delicate indeed is their organization, that they 

 detect the smallest deterioration in the atmosphere 



