34 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 
82. Each spear of the sting has about nine barbs, which 
are turned back like those of a fish hook, and prevent the 
sting from being easily withdrawn. When the insect is 
prepared to sting, one of these spears, having a little 
longer point than the other, first darts into the flesh, and 
Fig. 18. 
THE STING OF THE WORKER-BEE, AND ITS APPENDAGES, 
(Magnified. From Girard.) 
a, ating; b, poison-sack; c,r, poison glands; ¢,d, secreting bags. 
being fixed by its foremost barb, the other strikes in also, 
and they alternately penetrate deeper and deeper, till they 
acquire a firm hold of the flesh with their barbed hooks. 
“Meanwhile, the poison is forced to the end of the spears, 
by much the same process which carries the venom from the 
tooth of a viper when it bites.””—(Girard.) 
