2 08 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



it can be conceived what an in- 

 finitesimal small quantity of 

 venom is injected during the 

 stinging act, and how powerful- 

 ly venomous this minimal poi- 

 son secretion acts upon the sys- 

 tem. There are instances on 

 record where animals, and even 

 persons, being repeatedly stung 

 by wasps or bees, have succumb- 

 ed, though this is a very rare 

 occurrence, and I have just 

 read in the daily dispatches of 

 the San Antonio Express how 

 a person was attacked by a 

 swarm of bees and had a very 

 narrow escape from being 

 stung to death; this dispatch 

 reading : 



tracting the passage to the 

 lungs, almost closing it entirely, 

 and for several minutes he 

 gasped for breath. A physician 

 was hurriedly summoned, but 

 before he arrived Gouger had 

 revived. His companions say 

 that at one time it looked like 

 his breath was completely shut 

 off for several seconds." 



The photomicrograph herein 

 shows the venom bladder and the 

 sharp and Curved sting (of horny 

 consistency and sharper than a 

 needle) of a dissected bee's sting- 

 ing apparatus plainly, and which 

 corresponds in its anatomy pre- 

 cisely with the stinging ap- 

 paratus of the wasp. When .plunged 



A Bee's Abdomen, Showing Its Poison Bladder and Duct, and the Two Sting Implements 



"Cotulla, Tex., April 28.— The 

 cutting of a bee tree on the 

 Nueces two miles above town 

 yesterday came near resulting 

 fatally to Roland A. Gouger, a 

 well known business man of 

 this place. 



"A party numbering about 

 ten went to the place with the 

 intention of sawing the tree 

 down and getting the honey. 

 Before the tree was felled the 

 bees swarmed forth and liter- 

 ally covered Gouger, stinging 

 him many times about the head. 

 The poison made him deathly 

 sick and had the effect of con- 



into the tissues during the stinging 

 act, the outer sharp and dagger- 

 like stinger sometimes breaks off 

 at the base part joint and remains 

 in the tissues of the skin and 

 causes intense pain, until removed. 

 Both these stinging tools are hol- 

 low inside, and the groove serves 

 the venom to quickly filter into 

 the sting wound. Identically the 

 same anatomical arrangement ex- 

 ists in the sting implements of the 

 hornet and tarantula killing wasp, 

 and all other genera of wasps 

 (compare the venom bladder and 

 stinger of hornet on page 6, third 

 row, last objects, of the miniature 



