46 HUMBLE CREATURES. 



effect. But the fact is, that the sting of a Bee is not 

 simply, as it might appear at first sight, a little splinter, 

 resembling those fragments of thorn that we occa- 

 sionally find to have penetrated our skin during a 

 country ramble; but it is a highly organized appa- 

 ratus, upon which the penetrating power of the lens 

 must be brought to bear in order to reveal its for- 

 midable character. 



The little instrument known as the sting, is found, 

 when magnified, to be the sheath in which the true 

 sting lies concealed, although the whole enters the 

 wound when an attack is made. The piercing appa- 

 ratus itself is, however,, double (PL VI. fig. 5,bb), being 

 composed of two long darts, which, in the illustration, 

 are removed from the sheath and separated in order 

 to exhibit their shape, but in their natural position 

 are placed side by side, so as to form a lance ; and 

 being furnished with suitable muscles, they are forcibly 

 protruded from the sheath (PI. VI. fig. 5, a) when re- 

 quired for the purposes of attack or defence. But 

 our investigation must not stop here ; for if we employ 

 a tolerably high microscopic power to examine the 

 points of these darts, we shall find them to be barbed 

 (PI. VI. fig. 6), each piercer being furnished on one 

 side with eight teeth ; and as they are so placed when 

 in use that the smooth edges are in juxtaposition, you 

 will perceive that they then constitute a single for- 

 midable barbed spear, similar to one of those primitive 

 weapons of warfare employed by the savage inhabitants 

 of various countries, that you wiU no doubt often have 



