GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 15 



serted the observatory hive, as soon as the light was excluded 

 from it, although it was late in the afternoon, and no drones 

 were flying out. Their exit was attributed to the loss of this 

 organ, which helps to direct them in darkness. 



35. The inference is obvious, that a bee deprived of her 

 antennse loses the use of her intellect.- 



' ' If you deprive a bird, a pigeon, for instance, of its cerebral 

 lobe, it will be deprived of its instinct, yet it will live if you 

 stuflE it with food. Furthermore, its brain will eventually be 

 renewed, thus bringing back all the uses of its senses." — 

 (Claude Bernard, "Science Expfirimentale. ") 



Bees, however, cannot live without their antennae, and these 

 organs would not grow again, like the brains of birds, the 

 legs of crawfishes, or the tails of lizards. 



36. Let us notice, in reference to the sensorial organs, 

 that the brain of workers is very much larger than that of 

 either the queen or the drone, who need but a very common 

 instinct to perform their functions ; while the various occupa- 

 tions of the workers, who act as nurses, purveyors, sweep- 

 ers, watchful wardens, and directors of the economy of the 

 bee-hive, necessitate an enlargement of faculties very extra- 

 ordinary in so small an insect. 



37. We cannot leave this subject without quoting the cele- 

 brated Hollander, Swammerdam, as Cheshire does: 



"I cannot refrain from confessing, to the glory of the im- 

 mense, incomprehensible Architect, that I have but imperfectly 

 described and represented this small organ; for to represent it 

 to the life in its full perfection, far exceeds the utmost efforts 

 of human knowledge." 



38. We have now come to the most difficult organ to 

 describe— the mouth of the bee. But we will first visit the 

 interior of the head and of the thorax, to find the nursing and 

 salivary glands, and explain their uses. 



39. The workers have three pairs of glands: two pairs, 

 different in form, placed in the head (fig. 6), and one larger 

 pair located in the thorax or corselet. The upper pair, which 



