342 NATURAL THEOLOGY, 



noticed, and not a little to be admired. The sting 

 of a hee will pierce through a goat-skin glove. It 

 penetrates the human flesh more readily than the 

 finest point of a needle. The action of the sting 

 aftbrds an example of the union of chemistiy and 

 mechanism, such as, if it be not a proof of contri- 

 vance, nothing is. First, as to the chemistry : 

 how highly concentrated must be the venom, 

 which, in so small a quantity, can produce such 

 powerful effects ! And in the bee we may observe 

 that this venom is made from honey, the only food 

 of the insect, but the last material from which I 

 should have expected that an exalted poison could, 

 by any process or digestion wiiatsoever, have been 

 prepared. In the next place, with respect to the 

 mechanism, the sting is not a simple but a com- 

 pound instrument. The visible sting, though 

 •drawn to a point exquisitely sharp, is in strictness 

 only a sheath, for, near to the extremity, may be 

 perceived by the microscope two minute orifices, 

 from which orifices, in the act of stinging, and, as 

 it should seem, after the point of the main sting 

 has buried itself in the flesh, are launched out two 

 subtile rays, which may be called the true or proper 

 stings, as being those through which the poison is 

 infused into the puncture already made by the 

 •exterior sting. I have said that chemistry and 

 mechanism are here united: by which observation 

 I meant, that all this machinery would have been 

 ^iseless, telum imbelle, if a supply of poison, in- 

 tense in quality, in proportion to the smallness of 



