MYSIOLOGT. 61 



■with their barbed hooks, and then follows the sheath, convey- 

 ing the poison into the wound. The action of the sting, 

 says Paley, affords an example of the union of chemistry 

 and mechanism ; of chemistry in respect to the venom, 

 which can produce such powerful effects ; of meclianism as 

 the sting is a compound instrument. The machinery would 

 have been comparatively useless had it not been for the 

 chemical process, by which in the insect's body honey 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 

 microscope, 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 exceedingly 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 polish amazingl}' beautiful, without the least 

 flaw, blemish, or inequality, and ended in a point too fine to 

 be discerned." 



The extremity of the sting being barbed like an arrow, 

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

 she darts it is at all tenacious. In losing her sting she parts 

 with a portion of her intestines, and of necessity, soon per- 

 ishes. 



As the loss of the sting is always fatal to the bees, they 

 pay a dear penalty for the exercise of their patriotic instincts ; 

 but they always seem ready, (except when they have taken 

 " a drop too much," and are gorged with honey,) to die in 

 defence of their home and treasures ; or as the poet has ex-, 

 pressed it, they 



