IRRITABILITY OF BEES. 
283 
tiny instrument of war; so small, indeed, that its 
wound would pass unheeded by all the larger animals, 
if it was not for the poison introduced at the same in- 
stant. It has been described as being “ composed of 
three parts, a sheath and two darts. Both the darts 
are furnished with small points or barbs like a fish- 
hook,” that hold it when introduced into the flesh ; 
the bee being compelled to leave it behind. 
DOES ITS LOSS PROVE FATAL? 
It is said “ to the bee itself this mutilation proves 
fatal.” This last is another assertion for fact, so often 
repeated, that perhaps we might as well admit it ; 
seeing the difficulty we should have in disproving it. 
Only think of the impossibility of keeping our eye, 
for five minutes, on a bee that is flying about, after it 
has left its sting. Yet there are some persons so very 
particular about what they receive as facts, that they 
would require this very unreasonable thing of watch- 
ing a bee till it died, before they could be positively 
sure that the loss of its sting caused its death. (It is 
much easier to guess.) They might even take analo- 
gy, and say that other insects possess so little sensation 
that they have been known to recover after much 
more extensive mutilation— that beetles have lived for 
months under circumstances that would have instant- 
ly killed some of the higher animals— that spiders 
often reproduce a leg, even lobsters can replace a lost 
claw, &c. I have put off describing any protection 
against their attacks, because I wish to get up a little 
more courage in our doings among them. T et it is 
