360 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Tro 



died in the hour of victory. The insect world also affords 

 illustrations of profitless triumphs. Sometimes there are 

 regular duels between bees. They descend to the ground to 

 fight, for in the air they would not be able to get purchase 

 enough to be sure of striking each other. They then engage in 

 a hand-to-hand fight, as the gladiators used formerly to do in 

 the circus. They are continually making stabs with their stings, 

 but almost always the point slips over the scales with which 

 they are covered. The combat is sometimes prolonged during 

 an hour before one of them has found the weak point in the 

 other's natural cuirasse, and has buried its terrible weapon in 

 the flesh. The victor often leaves his sting in the wound which 

 it has made, and then dies, in its moment of triumph, through 

 the loss of this organ. I. 



Troubles made Beautiful. 



Most of the shells of the oyster are pearly in the interior ; and 

 as the true pearls are merely morbid growths, they may all pro- 

 duce pearls of various qualities. The formation of pearls is 

 caused by the introduction of irritating substances such as 

 grains of sand between the mantle and the shell. The irrita- 

 tion causes the animal to cover the obnoxious object with layers 

 of pearl, which generally attach the foreign body to the interior 

 of the shell. The Chinese produce pearls artificially by placing 

 substances in the position just described ; and we have seen 

 some shells, to the interior of which small metal images were 

 attached in this manner by the pearly secretion. When we 

 look at a pearl we look at an annoyance which has been ennobled. 

 The oyster by itself is of merely nominal value. But the result 

 of the oyster's own treatment of its irritations in this world 

 the pearl is something " of great price." Apart from its 

 pecuniary worth this gem has a moral significance. It sug- 

 gests that troubles may be made beautiful, and reminds us that 

 amongst mankind some martyrs are more remembered by the 

 glory with which they invested their sorrows than by any other 

 portion of their lives. Biography has its moral pearls, which 

 are treasured long after the creators of them have perished, just 

 as material pearls are valued long years after the oysters have 

 been discarded. N. D. 



