STINGS 
787 
further into the wound, as if they had a 
conscious existence and burned with desire 
to wreak vengeance on the party attacked. 
Even after the sting has been pulled from 
the flesh, and thrown away, if it should 
stick in the clothing so the flesh will come 
in contact with it, it will commence work¬ 
ing again, pull itself into the flesh, and 
empty the poison into the wound, precisely 
as if the living bee were itself working it. 
The author has suffered many times 
from a sting unconnected with any bee. It 
would hold life enough to give a very pain¬ 
ful wound, for some minutes afterward. 
Muscular contraction of the sting has 
taken place under the field of the micro¬ 
scope 20 minutes after being detached from 
the bee. This phenomenon is wonderful, 
and, while watching the sting sink into the 
rim of a felt hat, one can ponder on that 
wonderful thing, animal life. Why should 
that isolated sting behave in this manner, 
when the bee to which it belonged was 
perhaps far away, buzzing thru the air? 
Why should this bundle of fibers and 
muscles behave as if it had a life to throw 
away? 
Under the microscope the sting is found 
to be a beautifully fashioned and polished 
instrument, whose delicate taper and finish 
make a most surprising contrast with any 
instrument man has been able to produce. 
In shape it appears to be round; but it is, 
in reality, egg-shaped, of a dark-red color, 
but transparent enough to show the hol¬ 
low. 
The sting proper is composed of three 
parts—the outer shell, or husk, D, and two 
barbed spears that slide partly inside of it. 
Fig. 2 shows the spears. The barbs are 
much like those on a common fishhook; 
and when the point of one spear, A, pene¬ 
trates far enough to get one barb under the 
skin, the bee has made a hold, and has no 
difficulty in sinking the sting its whole 
length into the wound; for the pumping- 
motion at once commences, and the other 
spear B, slides down a little beyond A, 
then A beyond B, and so on. With a 
motion like that of a pair of pump-handles, 
these spears are operated by small but 
powerful muscles attached thereto. These 
muscles will work, at intervals, for some 
time after the sting has been tom from 
the bee, as has been explained. They work 
with sufficient power to send the sting 
thru a felt hat or into a tough buckskin 
glove. . It is interesting to watch the bee 
while attempting to get its sting started 
into the hard cuticle on the inside of the 
hand. The spears often run along the 
surface diagonally, so that it can be seen 
how they work down by successive pumps. 
It was formerly supposed that the ducts 
00 were for the purposes of conducting 
the poison from the poison-bag up the 
barbs; but Snodgrass, of the Bureau of 
Entomology, has shown that this is a mis¬ 
take. 
Bee-sting magnified. 
Fig. 3. is a transverse section, sliced 
across the three parts, at about the dotted 
line D. A and B (Fig. 2) are the barbed 
spears; F and G (Fig. 3) the hollows to 
give them lightness and strength; H, H, 
the barbs. It will be observed that the 
husk, D, incloses but little more than one- 
third of the spears. The purpose of the 
main shaft C is to hold the spears in place, 
and to allow them to slide easily up and 
down, also to direct them while doing this 
work. To hold all together, there is a 
groove like a sliding dovetailed joint in 
both spears, with a corresponding projec¬ 
tion in the husk, which fit each other as 
