THE STING OF BEES. 191 



head into this, or if no such refuge be near, in an 

 emergency, throw yourself on the ground, and, with face 

 downwards, the bees will soon leave you. 



Yet some people appear to think they must inevitably 

 be stung if they meddle with bees and for their sakes it 

 is needful to explain why it is that a sting is painful, and 

 how the wound inflicted by the bee may be cured. Those 

 familiar with the usual microscopic objects will know 

 how marvellously delicate, and yet effective, is the me- 

 chanical structure of a bee's sting. (See page 46.) 

 This weapon, as we see it with our naked eye — finer 

 than a needle's point — is only the sheath, which lengthens 

 or contracts like the tubes of a telescope. The dart, as 

 before said, is barbed on each side, so that the bee, when 

 •Bery angry, is scarcely ever able to withdraw it, but 



" Deems life itself to vengeance well resigned ; 

 Dies on the wound, and leaves the sting behind." 



There are, indeed, some happy mortals whose " blood 

 such an even tenour keeps," that a bee-sting is to them 

 simply a puncture, and nothing more. Dr. Bevan has 

 suggested that lovers should subject themselves to the 

 ordeal of a bee-sting, in order to prove, we suppose, 

 that their temper is proof against "the stings and 

 arrows of any outrageous fortune " that matrimony can 

 bring. 



It is the homoeopathically minute tincture of poison 

 injected by the bee which causes inflammation. The 



