13. 
__-M. De Réaumur observes that a snail, having crept into 
a hive in a cool night, was assailed by the bees, who stun 
it to death, but not being able to drag it out of the hive, 
had embalmed, and enveloped it in a cerement of propolis. 
“T (says our author) had occasion to remark this operation 
of the bees on a young mole, which had the temerity, and 
met the misfortune of the snail. - It perished by the stings 
of the insects, and a short time after its death, I found it 
likewise enveloped in propolis.” 
Bees never discharge any excrement, as some authors 
maintain. ‘They have no organ suited to such discharge. 
Every thing which enters the body of these insects, as 
nourishment, is returned by the mouth only, having been 
converted either into honey, wax, or propolis. Even when 
they have the disease which we call dysentery, they dis- 
gorge by the mouth, those substances which have corrupted 
in their stomach, instead of having been converted into 
honey, wax, or propolis. 
The moderns, who have adopted this error, were doubt- 
less led into the mistake, by supposing the small opening 
at the posterior extremity of the bees, to be an organ for 
the discharge of excrement; whereas it is only the orifice, 
or scabbard which encloses the sting. 
These stings are fixed where other flies, who have their 
darts in the mouth, have the organ for the emission of ex- 
crements. The drone himself, who has neither dart nor 
sting for defence, discharges no excrement. The aliments 
which he takes, change into wax in the second stomach, 
and discharge by the mouth. The opening observed in his 
posterior extremity, is nothing but the orifice of the sheath 
of the organ proper for the fecundation of the queen’s eggs. 
Finally, the queen herself discharges no excrements. Her 
- aliments are converted into wax or propolis, which she 
discharges by the mouth. The orifice of the organ which 
we observe at her posterior extremity, is only used for 
laying eggs. : 
It is rare that a family of bees perish by the cold of 
winters, even the most rigorous, however few its popula- 
tion, if the hive be well closed, and sufficiently supplied 
with provisions. ‘They are then grouped together, and ap- 
pear buried in a profound sleep, during which, their pro- 
visions are economized till the moment of their waking. 
Some pretend, that in many countries of the north, in 
Russia, Sweden, Denmark, &c., to prolong their sleep, or 
B 
