THK JtMERICKN ®EB JQlIRlfSlLr. 



441 



scientist, tliat hi' sees the tnio bearing 

 of each f:u-t. I hope that he will not 

 be allowe<l to longer hide his light un- 

 der a bushel. 



At my reiiiiest, Mr. S. has eonsenteil 

 to the i)ublieatiou of his views. He 

 asks that I eonmicnt upon the subject, 

 which I am verj- pleased to do, as I 

 had already contemplated writing 

 another article, giving the views of 

 Schoufeld. I have re-written the arti- 

 cle, and have commented in [ ]\s. — A. 

 J. Cook. 



Ohjcetloiis to the Gland 'I'lioory. 



Until 1870 it was believed that 

 chyme was fed to the young larv;e, or, 

 rather, that the larval- food in the cells 

 is chyme. In that year. Von Siebold 

 examined and described the salivary 

 glands of the bee. The large size of 

 these glands seemed to indicate that 

 they had some other purjiose than to 

 secrete the saliva. It seemed possible 

 that they might secrete the larval 

 food. Fischer described these glands 

 a year later, and expressed the same 

 opinion as to their function. Leuekart 

 then declared that he had taught this 

 theory to his students for years. 



■I then thought this theory very 

 plausible, and probably the true one ; 

 but I expected further study and a 

 closer examination, but expected in 

 vain. Von Siebold, and probably 

 Leuekart as well, worked on other 

 proljlems. I supposed a microscopic 

 examination of the secretion from 

 these glands would prove the identity 

 of the same with the food of the larvas 

 but no such proof was forthcoming. It 

 may be said, that there is too little of 

 the product of the glands for analysis. 

 But just this seems to indicate that the 

 conii)aratively small glands cannot 

 secrete so large a (piantity of larval 

 food. 



[This view alone would not count 

 for much. There is too little nectar in 

 most flowers for a suceessfnl analysis ; 

 vet till' bees gather pounds of it in a day. 

 Supposing that the lower head-glands 

 of a single bee do not secrete enough 

 material for successful analysis at any 

 one time, yet thousands of bees might 

 do this with the whole day before 

 them, and have enough left to fiK'd all 

 the larv.i'.] 



In 1880, Schonfeld puldislied his 

 theory, which seemed to me nearer 

 the truth. 



Years before, Leuekart descril)ed the 

 larval food as a graiuilar, milky, uni- 

 forndy colored fluid containing many 

 microscopic eori)useles, similar or iden- 

 tical with the blood corpuscles, and 

 with the corpuscles found in the chyle, 

 or digested food, in the true stomach, 

 wliicli chyle i)asses directly through 

 the walls of the stomach liy osmosis. 

 WidlV states that the blood corpuscles 

 originate in the stomach. 



Analogy of the niunmialia favors the 

 gland theory of Leuekart. It seems 

 plausible that the young bee, like the 

 young calf, is fed with milk ; yet not 

 so i)lausible when we remember that 

 the larva is not a young bee. I would 

 rather compare tin' larva to the oii- 

 bryo of a mammal, and this is nourish- 

 ed directly from the blood. The chyle 

 of bees is, in fact, identical with their 

 blood, and contains everything neces- 

 sary to build up the Ijody of the bee ; 

 so it seems i-ational and natural to sup- 

 pose that the chyle is the larvitl food. 



[Analogy is always an uncertain 

 argument. In case of animals as wide 

 apart as the mammalia and insects, it 

 reall}' has no force. Grant that it had, 

 even then in the case in question it 

 would be diliicult to say which way the 

 argument pointed.] 



With higher animals, the origin of 

 the chj'le is more complicated, and 

 digestion is completed in the small in- 

 testines. In bees, the structure of the 

 canal is ditlVrent ; and it is possible 

 that chjle originates in the stomach. 



[Here chyle must mean the sum 

 total of digestion. With higher ani- 

 mals, chyle means simply the digested 

 fat, and is carried to the blood through 

 a special system of vessels, while the 

 other products of digestion are mainly 

 absorbed directly b}' the blood-vessels.] 

 If the larval food and chj'le are 

 identical, of course we must depend 

 on the microscope to prove it. If we 

 examine the stomach of the worker- 

 bee we find more or less partially 

 digested food, but no chjde. 



[From the fact that, in examining 

 many bees, I have never found the 

 granular milk-like substance fed to 

 larval bees, was my principal reason 

 for accepting the secretion rather than 

 the digestion theory.] 



Schonfeld made the following ex- 

 periments, and hereby is explained 

 how the chyle can be found in the 

 true stomach of tlie nurse-bee : 



a. Honey colored by cherry-juice is 

 fed to bees in a starving condition. 



/i. Honey colored by l»olly-juice is 

 fed in the same luanner. 



c. In like manner, honey mixed with 

 pollen of the white lilj-, which is easj' 

 to distinguish with the microscope, 

 was fed. 



After feeding, in each case the con- 

 tents of the stomach, and the larval 

 food, were carefully' examined with 

 the microscope. In every case the 

 food in the cells with larvte was the 

 same milky granular substance, with 

 no color, nor any lilj- pollen. This 

 larval food, then, could not consist of 

 chyme or the material from the honey- 

 stomach. 



Every hour a nurse-bee was ex- 

 amined, and the process of digestion 

 noted. The color was seen to fade 



out, and the true vlujle W(W Jouml, dif- 

 fering in nowise from t/ie food- given to 

 the larva;. While in the intestine, ml 

 and dark-colored Wcr6i)icnt, jiiixed ' 

 with pollen-husks oif''-,the lily, were 

 plainly evident. Many beesivcre, cnug/it, / 

 Just aljout to feed the larva;, VHifJ'lvn''' 

 cliyk was found in each case. 



[This, of conr.se, is crucial. Not 

 finding chyle, like larval food, in the 

 stomach, does not prove its universal 

 absence. Finding it once, proves its 

 existence. Granting* the fact, the 

 conclusion must follow.] 



SallTary fjllands or Bees. 



All mature bees — workers, drones, 

 and queens — possess — 



I. The upper head salivary glands, 

 and — 



II. The thoracic salivary glands. 

 Besides these the worker-bees have — 



III. The lower head salivary glands. 

 Glands I. and II. have a common 



ending at the base of the ligula, in 

 the groove formed by the paragloss;e. 

 This secretion can, as the tongue is 

 extended, flow into the groove and 

 wet the ligula, but can go no further, 

 because the ligula, or sucking-tube, is 

 no fountain-pump, and the larva has 

 no sucking arrangement to draw this 

 out. 



[A stronger argument, perhaps, lies 

 in the fact that drones and queens also 

 have these glands, and surely they do 

 not feed the larvie. No one can think 

 that these are the milk-glands, even if 

 milk-glands exist.] 



The secretion from glands I. is oily ; 

 that from glands II. watery, which 

 would indicate that they po.ssess h dif- 

 ferent function. 



The function of the sucking-appara- 

 tus will show that the saliva is neces- 

 sary to .wet the ligula, and to make it 

 possible that the nectar can ascend. It 

 would require too much space here to 

 explain the function of the sucking- 

 apparatus, which is a misnomer, as 

 bees neither suck nor lick. 



[VeiT likely the saliva, like our own, 

 may serve to aid in keeping parts 

 moist ; but from the size of the glands, 

 and quantity of the secretion, this, as 

 is our own case, must be incidental. I 

 tliink our friend is surely mistaken in 

 his last assertion. I think I have 

 shown that bees do both suck and 

 lick.] 



If bees do change nectar more than 

 to evaporate it — that is, if they change 

 the kind of sugar (I am not sure that 

 they do), then it is probably done by 

 glaiid II. Such a change could be due 

 only to a ferment, and could come 

 only from the saliva. 



[I know that bees change cane sugar 

 to reducible sugar, both when fed cane 

 syrup or nectar. I have had analysis 

 made in both cases. While not all 

 cane sugar would be reduced, most 



