84 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1750, 



more of his castrating or sharing the combs with the bees, by taking the combs 

 best stored with honey, and leaving those having the nymphae and bee-bread; 

 but think, in taking the combs, a safer and easier way may be taken, than he 

 directs: his method is to stupefy the bees with smoke, to oblige them to croud 

 together in the crown of the hive, and then turning up the hive, and cutting 

 out the combs filled with honey. Now I think, that turning up the full hive, 

 and setting an empty hive upon it, and driving the bees into it, is preferable to 

 smoking; for then a very few bees will remain in the full hive, and those few 

 may be stupefied, and the bees in the empty hive being put on a table, the 

 combs may be taken out and selected at leisure, without hazard; and afterwards 

 the empty hive may be turned up, and their old hive set over them, so that they 

 will go up without scruple into their former hive, and repair their work, by 

 making new combs: and if the queen had not quitted the old hive, as is often 

 the case, then they would return to their queen, and the society would not be 

 lost, as is sometimes the case, in driving into an empty hive. 



Further Experiments on Substances Resisting Putrefaction ; with Experiments 

 on the Means of Hastening and Promoting it. By John Pringle, M. D., 

 F. R. S. N° 496, p. 550. 



1 . Decoctions of wormwood and of the bark, also infusions of camomile- 

 flowers, and of snake-root, these preserved yolks of eggs, not only several days 

 longer than water did alone, but also when a good quantity of sea-salt was added 

 to it. Dr. P. likewise found that salt of hartshorn preserved this substance better 

 than 4 times its weight of sea-salt. 



2. Ox's gall was kept some time from putrefaction by small quantities of ley of 

 Tartar, spirit of hartshorn, crude sal ammoniac, and the saline mixture, and still 

 longer by a decoction of wormwood, infusions of camomile-flowers, and of snake- 

 root; by solutions of myrrh, camphor, and salt of amber; all were separately 

 mixed with gall, and found more antiseptic than sea salt; and seemingly in pro- 

 portion to their effects on flesh. Only nitre failed; which, though 4 times 

 stronger than sea salt in keeping flesh sweet, is inferior to it in preserving gall, 

 and remarkably weaker than crude sal ammoniac: which again is somewhat less 

 powerful than nitre in preserving flesh. The nitre was soon opened by the gall, 

 and emitted a vast quantity of air, which rose as from a fermenting liquor: and 

 when this happened, the gall began to putrify. But the saline mixture gene- 

 rated no air, and opposed the putrefaction of gall more than it did that of 

 flesh. 



3. The last trial was with the serum of human blood, which was preserved 

 by a decoction of the bark, and an infusion of snake-root, nor with less efficacy 

 than flesh. But saffron and camphor were not here above a 4th part so antiseptic 



