CHAPTER V. 



DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 



Need of a Digestive System — Food Solution — 

 Similarity of the Digestive Process in all Animals 

 — CEsophagus — Honey Sac — Stomach-Mouth — Chyle 

 Stomach — Gastric Teeth — Small and Large hites- 

 tines — Anal Glands — Embryogeny of Digestive 

 Tube — Structure and Use of Stomach-Mouth and 

 Chyle Stomach — Dufour's Theory. 



The primary object of a digestive system is to 

 supply the vitalising and formative material called 

 blood, which sustains in activity and builds up out of 

 its substance every tissue of the bodies of animals. 

 A little attention given to the process of blood 

 making in our own case, will well prepare the way 

 for a better realisation of the uses of the structures 

 we find in bees. Our food, whatever may be its 

 character, needs at first to be wholly or in part 

 brought into the condition of solution in water, and 

 only such part as is actually dissolved can be in 

 any way utilised ; e.g., in ordinary bread, our typical 

 food, we have principally two substances, starch and 

 gluten, both of which may be soaked for any 



