GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 37 



is converted into poison; and on the other hand, the poison 

 would have been ineffectual, without an instrument to wound, 

 and a syringe to inject it. 



' ' Upon examining the edge of a very keen razor by the micro- 

 scope, it appears as broad as the back of a pretty thick knife, 

 rough, uneven, and full of notches and furrows, and so far from 

 anything like sharpness, that an instrument as blunt as this 

 seemed to be, would not serve even to cleave wood. An ex- 

 eeedingly small needle being also examined, it resembled a 

 rough iron bar out of a smith's forge. The sting of a bee 

 viewed through the same instrument, showed everywhere a pol- 

 ish amazingly beautiful, without the least flaw, blemish, or in- 

 equality, and ended in a point too fine to be discerned." 



84. As the extremity of the sting is barbed like an arrow, 

 the bee can seldom withdraw it, if the substance into which 

 she darts it is at all tenacious. A strange peculiarity of the 

 sting and the muscles pertaining to it, is their spasmodic 

 action, which continues quite a while, even after the bee has 

 torn herself away, and has left them attached to the wound. 

 In losing her sting, she often parts with a portion of her 

 intestines, and of necessity soon perishes. Wasps and hornets 

 are different from bees in this respect, for they can sting re- 

 peatedly without endangering their lives. 



Although bees pay so dearly for the exercise of their 

 patriotic instincts, still, in defense of home and its sacred 

 treasures, they 



"Deem life itself to vengeance well resign 'd. 

 Die in the wound and leave their sting behind." 



85. The sting is not, however, always lost. When a bee 

 prepares to sting, she usually curves her abdomen so that she 

 can drive, in her sting perpendicularly. To withdraw it, she 

 turns around the wound. This probably rolls up its barbs, 

 so that it comes out more readily. If it had been driven 

 obliquely instead of perpendicularly, as sometimes happens, 

 she could never have extracted it by turning around the 

 wound. 



86. Sometimes, only the poison-bag and sting are torn 



