PHYSIOLOGY OF THE INVERTEBRATA. 



97 



not contain the smallest trace of biliary acids, pigments, or 

 glycogen. 



Dr. A. von Planta* has recently investigated the juice, or 

 the sticky substance, which the working bees store in the 

 cells of the larvae of the queens, drones, and workers. 

 Leuckartt regarded it as the product of the true stomach 

 (see Mg. 8c) of the working bees, which they vomit into 

 the cells in the same way that honey is vomited from the 

 honey-bag (see Pig. 8&). Fisher and others regarded it as 

 the product of the saliyary glands of the bees. Schonfeld 

 has more recently shown that Leuckart's original view is the 

 correct one. He showed that the saliva can be easily 

 obtained from the salivary glands of the head and thorax, 

 and that it is very different from the food-juice deposited 

 in the cells by the bees; and that, moreover, the juice is 

 similar, both chemically and microscopically, to the contents 

 ■of the bee's true stomach ; he showed also, from the 

 consideration of certain anatomical and physiological pecu- 

 liarities of th§ bee, such as the position of the mouth, the 

 inability of the bee to spit, &c., that the view of this 

 substance being saliva is quite untenable. Certain observers 

 have to this replied, that a bee cannot vomit the contents of 

 its true stomach, because of a valve which intervenes between 

 it and the honey-stomach or bag (see Fig. %%) ; but Schonfeld 

 has shown that the structure, mistaken for a valve, has not 

 the function of one, but is in reality an internal mouth, over 

 which the animal has voluntary control, and by means of 

 which it is able to eat and drink the contents of the hon^y- 

 stomach when necessity or inclination arises. By light 

 pressure on the stomach, and stretching out the animal's 

 neck, the contents of the stomach can be easily pressed out. 



Dr. A. von Planta's investigations entirely confirm Schon- 

 feld's view, that the food-juice comes from the bee'^ true 

 stomach. The subject was investigated from the point of 



* Zeitschrift Physiol. C'hemie, vol. 12, p. 327. 

 t Deutsche Bienenseitung, 1854-5. 



