CHAPTER XI 



THE POISON OF THE BEE 



T HAVE discussed elsewhere the stings ad- 

 ■*■ ministered by the Wasps to their prey. 

 Now chemistry comes and puts a spoke in the 

 wheel of our arguments, telling us that the 

 poison of the Bees is not the same as that 

 of the Wasps. The Bees' is complex and 

 formed of two elements, acid and alkaline. 

 The Wasps' possess only the acid element; 

 and it is to this very acidity and not to the 

 so-called skill of the operators that the pre- 

 servation of the provisions is due.^ 



Admitting that there is a difference in the 

 nature of the venom, I fail to see that this has 

 any hearing on the matter in question. I can 

 inoculate with various liquids — acids, weak 

 nitric acid, alkalis, ammonia, neutral bodies, 

 spirits of wine, essence of turpentine — and 



'The author's numerous essays on the Wasps will form 

 the contents of later volumes. In the meantime, cf. Insect 

 Life: chaps, iv. to xii. and xiv. to xviii.; and The Life 

 and Love of the Insect: chaps, xi., xii. and xvii. — Trans- 

 lator's Note. 



339 



