ERROR OF MR. DUCOUEDIC. 347 



bees ; when he will find his clothes studded with small spots 

 of a thickish, yellowish colour, and emitting rather an un- 

 pleasant smell. Should however the bees be confined to 

 the hive, either by an erroneous system of management or 

 a long continuance of bad weather, the accumulation of the 

 fasces in the intestines of the bees produces that disease 

 which is known amongst them as the dysentery, and is the 

 cause of the destruction of many hives. 



If however we consult the writings of the French na- 

 turalists on the subject of the diseases of bees, we cannot 

 but be forcibly struck with the extraordinary errors into 

 which they have fallen, and which almost warrant the con- 

 jecture, that the works of several of the French apiarians 

 are merely crude compilations, and not based on the results 

 of personal experience. We know Mr. Ducouedic to have 

 been a naturalist, to whose authority great deference has 

 been paid on all matters relative to the natural history of 

 the bee ; yet how grossly has he erred when he asserts that 

 the bees void no excrement at all, and that they are even des- 

 titute of the organ necessary for its emission. " Every thing," 

 he says, " which enters into the body of these insects for their 

 nourishment is never emitted by any other channel than the 

 mouth, and is converted either into honey, wax, or propolis. 

 When the bees are afflicted with the dysentery, it is then 

 even by the mouth that they disgorge the substance, which has 

 been corrupted in their stomachs, instead of being converted 

 into one of the above mentioned three substances." 



We should have considered the foregoing statement of 

 Ducouedic as totally unworthy of all notice, as it is in direct 

 variance with the most limited experience, had it not been 

 incorporated by some of the encyclopedists of this country, 

 into the natural history of the bee, and advanced as incon- 

 trovertibly true. Had Mr. Ducouedic taken upon himself 

 the task of dissecting a bee, he would immediately have 

 discovered the fallacy of his statements ; and moreover, had 

 Q 2 



