ORGANS OF DIGESTION. 65 



Insects have no gut precisely similar to the colon of 

 other animals. 



The vent gut( ! ) is very muscular, and usually short. 

 It ends in the vent( 2 ), through which the crude parts ( 3 ) 

 of the chyle, collected in the blind gut, are thrown 

 out of the body. 



The singular discharges of offensive matter, such 

 as the poison of the bee, and the vapour of the bom- 

 bardier beetle, are prepared near the vent gut by a 

 particular apparatus, and stored up in a sort of blad- 

 der, from which they are discharged. 



In the abdomen of a certain class of bees in the 

 common hive, called wax workers, are cells between 

 the rings, in which wax appears to be prepared by 

 secretion from the food within, and not collected, as 

 is supposed, directly from flowers ; as the pollen is 

 well known to be upon the thighs for the purposes of 

 food. This opinion, however, which I have not myself 

 verified by observation, is contrary to that popularly 

 held. It was first started by Hornbostel, a clergyman 

 at Hamburgh, in 1744, and republished as his own 

 discovery, by Reim, in 1769. Mr. John Hunter, evi- 

 dently without being aware of these, published it as 

 his own discovery in 1792; and Huber, assisted by 

 the clever daughter of Professor Jurine, made experi- 

 ments and dissections, all confirmatory of the same 

 view. Resently G. R. Treviranus, one of the best 

 living experimental physiologists, has repeated the 

 investigations, and has come to the same conclusion. 

 I think these high authorities must outweigh that of 

 Mr. Huish, who decides that they are all wrong, and 

 that the popular notion is right. 



The nutritive part of the chyle, which is (if the 

 term may be used) filtered through the sides of the 

 small gut, is not then received into any vessel, as has 



(1) In Latin, Rectum. (2) In Latin, Anus. 



(3) In Latin, Excrementa, or, Faces. 

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