NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BEE. SO 



means by which, through the knowledge it gives of 

 the secrets of Hfe, innumerable precious lives have 

 been preserved. I mean the discovery by the great 

 Hervey of the circulation of the blood, or the way in 

 which the blood is constantly, and every moment, 

 flowing onward from the heart, through the arteries, 

 to every portion of the body, returning by the veins 

 to be first purified by the lungs, and then returned to 

 the heart, ready to start afresh on its course, never 

 ceasing till the moment of death. 



This discovery is said by Hervey himself to have 

 sprung from his seeking to know the use of some 

 little valves which are found in the veins. They are, 

 apparently, so insignificant that no one, before, 

 thought much about them. Hervey knew they must 

 have some use, and so set himself, with much study 

 and by endless experiments, to find out the why and 

 the wherefore. At last, after eight years, he was led 

 gradually, step by step, to make his great discovery, 

 which, although treated with scorn and all kinds of 

 opposition at first, for ever marks him out as one of 

 the greatest benefactors of the world. 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BEE. 



The first thing, in the natural history of the bee, 

 which you must, in some measure, understand, is the 

 bee's position in the great insect world, or something 

 of what is called the classification of insects. 



