OR, MANUAL OP Thb apiary. 59 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



It would be a pleasing duty, and not an unprofitable one, 

 to give in this connection a complete history of entomology so 

 far as it relates to Apis mellifera. But this would take much 

 space, and as there is quite a full history in books, that I shall 

 recommend to those who are eager to know more, of this in-: 

 teresting department of natural history, I will not go into 

 details. 



Aristotle wrote of bees more than three hundred years B. 

 C. About three hundred years later, Virgil, in his fourth 

 Georgic, gave to the world the views then extant on this sub- 

 ject, gathered largely from the writings of Aristotle. The 

 poetry will ever be remarkable for its beauty and elegance — • 

 would that as much might be said for ,the subject matter, 

 which, though full of interest, is full of errors. A little later. 

 Columella, though usually careful and accurate in his observa- 

 tions, still gave voice to the prevailing errors, though much 

 that he wrote was valuable, and more was curious. As Mr. 

 L,angstroth once said to me. Columella wrote as one who had 

 handled the things of which he wrote ; and not like Virgil, as 

 one who was dealing with second-hand wares. Pliny, the 

 elder, who wrote in the second century, A. D., helped to con- 

 tinue the erroneous opinions which previous authors had given, 

 and not content with this, he added opinions of his own, which 

 were not only without foundation, but were often the perfec- 

 tion of absurdity. 



After this, nearly two thousand years passed with no prog- 

 ress in natural history ; even for two centuries after the revival 

 of learning, we find nothing of note. Swammerdam, a Dutch 

 entomologist, in the middle of the seventeenth century, wrote 

 a general history of insects ; also, " The Natural History of 

 Bees." He and his English contemporary, Ray, showed their 

 ability as naturalists by founding their systems on insect 

 transformations. They also revived the study and practice of 

 anatomy, which had slept since its first introduction by Aris- 

 totle, as -the great stepping-stone in zoological progress. I 

 never open the grand work of Swammerdam, with its admir-: 

 able illustrations, without feelings of the most profound re- 



