The Poison of the Bee 



The disadvantages are these: the ampu- 

 tated abdomen, though more tractable than 

 the entire Bee, is still far from satisfying my 

 wishes. It gives capricious starts and unex- 

 pected pricks. I want It to sting here. No, 

 it balks my forceps and goes and stings else- 

 where: not very far away, I admit; but It 

 takes so little to miss the nerve-centre which 

 we wish to get at. I want It to go In perpen- 

 dicularly. No, In the great majority of cases. 

 It enters obliquely and passes only through the 

 epidermis. This is enough to show how many 

 failures are needed to make one success. 



Nor is this all. I shall be telling nobody 

 anything new when I recall the fact that the 

 Bee's sting is very painful. That of the hunt- 

 ing insects, on the contrary. Is in most cases 

 Insignificant. My skin, which is no less sensi- 

 tive than another's, pays no attention to it: I 

 handle Sphex-wasps, Ammophlla^ and Scollae 

 without heeding their lancet-pricks. I have 

 said this before; I remind the reader of It 

 because of the matter In hand. In the ab- 

 sence of well-known chemical or other pro- 

 perties, we have really but one means of com- 

 paring the two respective poisons; and that Is 

 the amount of pain produced. All the rest is 



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