170 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 
quantity of the food supplied to the larve, then 
the action of these glands cannot be over-estimated 
in importance, and cannot be studied too deeply : 
they form the very spring and fount of life. Yet 
is it certain that the influence brought to bear on 
the young grubs by the nurse-bees is wholly re- 
stricted to the matter of food? The worker-bee 
has several curious organs and gland-systems in 
various parts of her body, in addition to those 
already enumerated, to which no rational use has 
yet been assigned. The more we study her extra- 
ordinary equipment, the less justification there 
appears to be for dogmatising about her, limiting 
or particularising the function of any one gland or 
implement in the whole unending array. The old 
adage, that there is nothing invariable about the 
honey-bee, is like to be as true with regard to her 
physiology as it is with her habits of life; and, for 
all we can tell, to-morrow’s knowledge may render 
obsolete much of the carefully garnered knowledge 
of to-day. 
If the story of the honey-bee’s anatomy has 
everywhere some of the elements of romance about 
it—in its unexpected incidents, its adventurous 
colour, its shadow of a great design—this spirit 
suffers no abatement when we come, in a last view 
of it, to consider her as one carrying arms, one 
bearing such a weapon of offence as never came 
into human mind to fashion. The long curved 
scimitar of the queen, which she cherishes so care- 
