120 True Stomach and its Function, 
inch long and is rich in cells, which are held by a very 
delicate membrane which extends on still further. Schie- 
menz believes that this is a valve, and certainly unless drawn 
by the strong muscles in the walls out of the stomach as 
Schonfeld believes, it would act as a most efficient valve, 
If this does act as a perfect valve, then of course the nurse 
bees can never feed the larvee or queen any digested food , 
from the true stomach. This is Schiemenz’s view. Pastor 
Schonfeld, however, still holds, and seems to have proved, 
that while this may serve as a valve it is under the control 
of the bee and may be so drawn up by the very muscular 
honey-stomach as to permit regurgitation. In this regur- 
gitation of chyle, the stomach-mouth closely approximates 
the stomach end of the esophagus; and so the chyle does 
not pass into the hohey-stomach. This prolongation then 
is a valve under the control of the bee and is another 
wonderful structure in this highly organized insect. 
The true stomach (Fig. 21,5) is curved upon itself and is 
4 of an inch long and .1 of an inch in diameter. It is 
rugose, and the circular wrinkles or constrictions are quite 
regular. Itis richly covered within by gastric cells (Fig. 4o, 
s,¢) which secrete the gastric juice. ‘The mucous membrane 
is folded and hence there are very numerous gastric cells, 
Undoubtedly the function “of the gastric juice is the same 
as in our own stomachs, it aids to liquify or render osmotic 
—capable of being absorbed—the albuminous food, in this 
case the pollen. This view is confirmed by the fact that 
we almost always find pollen in all stages of digestion in 
the true stomach of the bee. Emptying into the pyloric 
or posterior end of the stomach (Fig. 21) are numerous 
tubules. These are the urinary organs, and remove waste 
elements from the blood. They are really the bee’s kid- 
neys. Like our own kidneys they are nothing more than 
tubules lined with excreting cells. The small intestine is 
often called ileum (Fig.21,z¢ and A). This portion of the 
digestive tube is lined with very minute, sharp chitinous 
teeth which Schiemenz believes are used to further masti- 
cate the pollen grains, that have not yielded to the digestive 
action of the stomach. This opinion is sustained by the 
strongly muscular nature of the tube (Fig. 21, A). The 
