BEES UNDER PROPER CONTROL. 
27 
salicylate, or oil of winter green, gives practical immu- 
nity from stings, and as such would be hailed by some 
with delight, while to many more it would at least 
have the transient value of inspiring confidence in 
the abandonment of gloves. It can easily be washed 
from the hands, and may be purchased pure at about 
one shilling an ounce ; but it is liable to be terribly 
adulterated and weakened. I have tried a great 
variety of substances Avith varying success, such as 
camphorated oil, cedar oil, creasote, glycerine and 
vaseline made into an emulsion ; but the innocence, 
ready removal, and persistency of the odour of methyl 
salicylate, leaves it without a rival. 
A most interesting question now arises, the key 
to which is given in Vol. I., page 191 — Why does the 
bee not sting when she strikes with that intention ? 
Because she examines the spot to which the sting 
is to be applied with beautiful feeling organs — the 
palpi (/, A, Plate VI., Vol. I.). At the very ex- 
tremity of each of these is a delicately-haired, bulbous 
form, which is nervous in character, while several 
strongly-bulbed hairs, clearly tactile in function, 
are arranged immediately above it. The supposition 
that there is not time for the bee to determine 
whether she will sting or no, as “ it is done in a 
flash,” arises from our judging of her movements 
by our own. Large creatures are necessarily slow ; 
but be it remembered that she can flap her wings 
more than 400 times per second, and that each flap 
involves the extension and contraction, through a 
nerve impulse, of the muscles employed in the wing 
movements, and we shall see at once that the “ no 
