IQ2 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



steam engine — introduces a question which greatly 

 puzzled me before I found its solution. If some of 

 the virus, exhibited as a tiny drop at the point of 

 the extended sting of an angry worker, be removed 

 by a glass slip, and allowed to dry for three or four 

 minutes, it will become hard, leaving a little promi- 

 nence, as though it had been gum water ; and if it 

 be placed under the microscope as it sets, it will be 

 seen to split, by contraction, into lines, which rapidly 

 travel across the field of view. Dr. Bevan* says : 

 "If the poison be looked at by a microscope,, pointed 

 crystals will become visible. These may be seen at 

 first floating in the venom, and gradually shooting into 

 crystals as the fluid part evaporates." Careful experi- 

 ment proves that Dr. Bevan was probably deceived by 

 a defective microscope. He mistook, no doubt, the 

 fissures for crystals. The object is a curious one, and 

 the experiment so easy that it should be tried. But 

 to our point. How is it that this gummy body, insinu- 

 ating itself between the grooves and tenons, does not 

 quickly fix them together, and render the sting utterly 

 inoperative ? Another gland, not seen in the Figure, 

 prevents what some might consider "a consumma- 

 tion devoutly to be wished." Its place is behind 

 the ganglion ; it is much smaller than the poison 

 gland, being about -^-in. long and y^in. in dia- 

 meter, and, like its companion, it enters a sac 

 which is the reservoir of its secretion, and which 

 would be situated behind the vulva (v) in the Figure. 

 The fluid it produces is a lubricating oily body, which 

 entering between the working parts, secures their 

 * Bevan " On the Honey Bee," 1838. 



