86 f#HYSIOLOGY OF THE IONEY-BEE. 
85. The sting is not, however, always lost. Whena 
bee prepares to sting, she usually curves her abdomen so 
that she can drive in her sting perpendicularly. To with- 
draw it, she turns around the wound. This probably rolls 
up its barbs, so that it comes out more readily. If it had 
been driven obliquely instead of perpendicularly, as some- 
times happens, she could never have extracted it by turning 
around the wound. 
86. Sometimes, only the poison-bag and sting are torn 
off, then she may live quite a while without them, and 
strange to say, seems to be more angry than ever, and per- 
sists in making useless attempts to sting. 
87. If a hive is opened during a Winter day, when the 
weather does not permit the bees to fly, a great number of 
them raise their abdomens, and thrust out their stings, in a 
threatening manner. A minute drop of poison can be seen 
on their points, some of ‘which is occasionally flirted into 
the eyes of the Apiarist, and causes severe irritation. The 
odor of this poison is so strong and peculiar, that it is eas- 
ily recognized. In warm weather it excites the bees, and so 
provokes their anger, that when one has used its sting in 
one spot on skin or clothes, others are inclined to thrust 
theirs in the same place. 
88. The sting, when accompanied by the poison-sack, 
may inflict wounds hours, and even days, after it has been 
removed, or torn, from the body of the bee. But when 
buried in honey, its poison is best preserved, for it is very 
volatile, and when exposed to the air, evaporates in a 
moment. The stings of bees, which, perchance, may be 
found in broken combs of honey, often retain their power, 
and we have known of a person’s being stung in the mouth, 
by carelessly eating honey in which bees had been buried 
by the fall of the combs. 
Mr. J. R. Bledsoe, in the American Bee Journal, for 
1870, writes: 
