The Poison of the Bee 



peated and continued by others of greater au- 

 thority than I, we should have escaped the 

 objections of chemistry. 



When light is so easy to obtain, why go in 

 search of scientific obscurity? Why talk of 

 acid or alkaline reactions, which prove 

 nothing, when it is so simple to have recourse 

 to facts, which prove everything? Before de- 

 claring that the hunting insects' poison has 

 preservative properties merely because of its 

 acid qualities, it would have been well to en- 

 quire if the sting of a Bee, with its acid and 

 its alkali, could not perchance produce the 

 same effects as that of the paralyser, whose 

 skill is categorically denied. Chemistry never 

 gave this a thought. Simplicity is not always 

 welcome in our laboratories. It is my duty 

 to repair this little omission. I propose to 

 enquire if the poison of the Bee, the chief of 

 the Apidae, is suitable for a surgery that para- 

 lyses without killing. 



The enquiry bristles with difficulties, though 

 this is no reason for abandoning it. First and 

 foremost, I cannot possibly operate with the 

 Bee just as I catch her. Time after time I 

 make the attempt, without once succeeding; 

 and patience becomes exhausted. 7he sting 



341 



