158 THE UNIVERSE. 



by the venom, the creeping annual dies in violent con- 

 tortions. But what is to be done with such a weighty 

 foe? The little feet of all the tribe would not suffice to 

 stir the corpse, and the narrow door of the hive would 

 not allow it to pass. Its putrid exhalations would, 

 however, soon infect the colony, and develop the germ 

 of some malady. How are they to escajje from this 

 dilemma ? 



The republic take counsel, and come suddenly to just 

 such a resolution as they would have done if they had 

 thoroughly known one of the arts of ancient Egypt. 

 As under the Pharaohs men embalmed the corpses of 

 animals, either with a religious view or to preserve them- 

 selves from their pestilential emanations, so all the bees 

 now set to work to embalm the dead animal, the presence 

 of which is a menace to them. For this purpose the 

 workers scatter themselves over the country in order to 

 gather the resinous matter (j^ropolis) which clings to the 

 buds, for this is what replaces the essences and aloes used 

 by the undertakers of the Thebaid. The bees closely en- 

 velop the dead body with this in the form of little fillets, 

 and deposit all round it a thick solid layer which pre- 

 serves it from putrefaction. 



After seeing so many ingenious combinations, who would 

 be tempted, with Malebranche and the upholders of the 

 scholastic philosophy, to look upon the insect as an auto- 

 maton, necessarily destined to accomplish only a series of 

 acts adapted to its mechanism ? We are here far beyond 

 the flute-player of Vaucanson and his famous mechanical 

 duck, which ate and digested its food in presence of the 

 spectators. 



But the same bees display under different circumstances, 

 if not as much art at least as much finesse. If instead of 



