280 PHYSIOLOGY. 



life to the community ? or may we rather ascribe 

 it to the dignified and generous forbearance so 

 frequently exemplified in the lion or English 

 mastiff?" 



The reluctance of queens to eject their stings, 

 led Pliny and others to imagine that they did not 

 possess any. Their extreme caution in this re- 

 spect, and the fatal consequences usually attending 

 a departure from it, gave birth to the following 

 jeux d'esprit. In consequence of Pope Urban the 

 Eighth being suspected of a stronger attachment 

 to the French than to the Spaniards, a Frenchman 

 who had observed three lees quartered upon his 

 arms, wrote this Latin verse. 



" Gallis mella dabunt, Hispanis spicula figent." 

 To this a Spaniard is said to have subjoined, 

 " Spicula si figant, emorientur apes.'* 



To close the series, and to show his universal 

 paternal regard towards his flock, Pope Urban 

 is made to add the following distich : 



" Cunctis mella dabunt, et nullis spicula figent, 

 Spicula rex* etenim figere nescit apum." 



This caution of the queens is never more con- 

 spicuously evinced than in their combats with each 



* The ancients supposed the sovereign of the bees to be 

 a male. 



