The: BH #67 E-O R-Y 
though their points be fo. near to each other, 
that the intermediate {pace can {carce be ob- 
ferved, and no body.thinks he fees any thing 
but one point. Each of thefe thanks is fur- 
rowed on one fide, but on the other it is 
ftrengthened by certain hooks: hence, whilft 
the equal fides and points of both fhanks aré 
joined together, the fting is provided from each 
fide armed with hooks. But, in order to un- 
derftand this matter juftly, one muft know the 
ftructure of the fheath of the fting; and there- 
fore I would have it obferved, that this cafe or 
fheath is not in reality difpofed in fuch a 
manner as the fcabbard of a fword or knife, 
or like the cafe of a rocket: by no means, for 
the fword, knife, or other weapon are on each 
fide hidden in their feabbards, and furrounded 
or covered entirely by them, nor is the cafe of 
the fting made like the fmall open tube or ca- 
nula, through which furgeons pafs their inftru- 
ments, when they are to cut a particular part 
in fuch a manner as that the adjacent parts may 
remain unhurt. The cafe of the aculeus is 
more like the horn-book made.in our country 
for children, or one of thofe cafes, the verge of 
which is furrowed and receives a moveable 
cover. The fheath is formed nearly in this 
manner: its inner fide each way is prominent, 
or has a rifing back, or it is fomewhat bent 
with a double margin; but thefe backs, like 
bolts, agree with and are joined to the furrows 
of the fhanks of the fting, and therefore thefe 
fhanks are very eafily and conveniently moveable 
up and down, like the operculum or coverin the 
furrow of the cafes juft named. But the fting 
itfelf is fituated in fuch a manner in this fheath, 
- that its. points lie as it were in the open cavity, 
but the crooked hooks fhew themfelves out of 
the fheath’s cavity; except when the fting ap- 
pears beyond the extreme verge of the fheath, 
and is confequently thruft out: therefore, the 
lower fide of the fhanks of the aculeus or fting 
lies always in the cavity of the fheath, and the 
upper fide is out of it. Thefe fides of the 
fhanks have crooked hooks, hang out of the 
cafe, and receiving in their furrows the internal 
ribs and prominences of the fheath, they are 
moved eafily along the latter ; whilft, in the 
mean time, their upper fides being {mooth, are 
applied to each other, and with their united ex- 
tremities they form the point of the fling. 
Further, it is proper to obferve that one of 
the fides of the cafe or fheath is not open through 
its whole length, nor does it refemble the 
inftrument before named, equally extended 
without its valye: it is rather on the hinder 
part, where it is broadeft, and united together, 
under which part the fhanks afterwards pafs. 
This is very particularly and plainly obferved 
in the fting of the Hornet, in which the theath 
entirely coalefces in the hinder part where it is 
thickeft. But in Bees thefe minute and narrow 
paflages are no where entirely united; there- 
fore the fheath in that place embraces the - 
fhanks of the fting,~at leaft in part, by that 
means preventing thofe fhanks from moving 
of “I-N-S £ Gt &, 199 
out of their places, as may be feen, Tab. XVIII. 
fig. 111. unders the letters. d d: on 
Each fhank of the fting has ufually ten 
crooked hooks near its point, and fome others 
which are lefs remarkable: but the fheath or 
cafe has no hook at all; becaufe if it had, the 
fting itfelf could not move backward and for- 
ward in it. Sinee therefore each fhank has ten 
hooks, the fting, when the Bee has given its 
ftroke; is kept in the wound, being fixed there 
by twenty bearded hooks ; and the more the 
Bee endeavours to draw the {ting out, the deeper 
its hooks penetrate into the wounded part. 
But if the fting be taken’ out of the body of 
the Bee, together with the inteftines and other 
parts, as I ‘have mentioned, it may notwith- 
ftanding then infinuate itfelf more and more 
deeply into the wound, being in this refpect 
like the heads of vipers, which will bite after 
they are cut off. This we are clearly taught 
by experience, fince we fee that when the fting 
is drawn. out of the body of the Bee, it pe- 
netrates {till deeper into the wound, trembling, 
and as it were fhaking in all its parts. The 
reafon of this is evident, for the fting is thrown 
out together with its fheath, and all the carti- 
lages and mufcles belonging to it, together with 
the poifon bladder. I have often made the 
before-mentioned experiment in  tan-leather 
gloves. The Bee mutt firft be fuffered to fix 
its {ting in them, and then it muft be taken by 
the wings and pulled away forcibly, fo that the 
fting may be drawn out of the body. One 
may fee that the fting penetrates deeper 
and deeper into the leather: nor indeed is 
there any thing to hinder the doing of this, 
fince the fting confifts of the two thanks before 
defcribed ; which, as their tops or ends are 
united together, fo both and each of them {e- 
parately may be moved: therefore, whilft one 
{hank 1s fixed in the wound, the other may be 
thruft further and deeper; and where this latter 
lies firm by means of its crooked hooks, the 
former, on the contrary, may be infinuated 
deeper into the wound, or thruft into it deeper 
than the former. By this means the fting and 
its fheath penetrate further into the wound, 
Therefore it frequently happens, that the 
fhank of the fling is drawn further back into 
the cafe, and the other thruft out of it in pro- 
portion. ‘Thus when the Bee hath ftruck the 
glove, and the {ting is then taken out of it, it 
is frequently found that one fhank appears far- 
ther ftretched out of the cafe than the other ; 
that is, the two fhanks of the fting have been 
then unequally fixed, and one is ftruck in more 
deeply than the other, and fixed there by means 
of its crooked hooks. When the {ting with 
its appendages has been juft pulled out of the 
Bee, if it be lightly put into any callous part 
of our skin, the fame confequence naturally 
fhews itfelf: for it is then plainly obferved, that 
the fting penetrates every m ment deeper and 
deeper into the wound; but however it does 
no harm, provided the callous part be thick 
enough to prevent the poifon from reaching or 
entering 
