The BOOK of 
entering the blood-veffels, for that naturally 
difcharges its {trength into the blood. 
it is now time to treat more particularly of 
the beards or crooked hooks of the fting. If 
you put them under a powerful microfcope, 
you will fee them almoft like Cats claws, that 
is, they are fomewhat bent inwards, and their 
extremities are entirely tranfparent, but they 
are not moveable like the claws of beafts: the 
fhanks that conftitute the fting and their 
crooked hooks are all plainly cartilaginous and 
fufficiently flexible, but they are connected by 
no articulations. 
No joints are obferved either in the fheath 
or the fling itfelf, though I was once of the 
contrary opinion. My error arofe from hence, 
that upon handling it the air run into the ca- 
vity of the cafe, and by its clearnefs or bright- 
nefs, and by the bubbles it formed, rendered 
con{picuous the poifoned liquor, which ftill re- 
mained in the fheath, fo that it appeared to me 
as if the cafe itfelf of the fting was articulated 
or jointed. 
If the fting be feen ftretched or protruded 
out beyond the extremity of the theath, and at 
that time the Bee difcharges its poifon, then 
this poifonous liquor is not thrown out beyond 
the cafe, but appears upon it like a little drop. 
But when the fting is moift or wet, the poifon 
alfo is further diffufed, as it happens when the 
Bee gives any perfon a ftroke, and afterwards 
infinuates its poifon into the wound. Nor can 
it be otherwife, fince the fting, the hinder part 
whereof is thicker, ftops or clofes up the 
wound {fo entirely, that the poifon has no en- 
trance or paflage into it, but through the inter- 
ftice of the fhanks of the fting itfelf. 
Therefore the proverb applied to Bees is very 
true, ‘ There is no honey without fome gall.” 
Though I can find no bile in this infect, yet 
the poifon thus called gall may be diftinguifhed 
very clearly in it; nay, a great quantity thereof 
may be eafily collected: this I fhall at fome 
time endeavour to do, when I fhall make ex- 
periments on this poifon. It would indeed be 
eafier to obtain it out of the Hornets, Wajfps, 
and Humble-Bees, the poifon-bladder of which 
is larger ; but one cannot get thefe creatures in 
fuch numbers as Bees. If any one defires to 
examine the Bee’s. poifon-bladder filled with 
poifon, he muft kill the Bee, which may be 
done by throwing it into a bottle of fpirit of 
wine. The Bees may be otherwife killed with- 
out handling them, by the fmoak of that kind 
of fungus called crepitus lupi, or the puff-ball, 
or with that of linen cloth folded as in making 
tinder. The latter, in my opinion, is the beft 
way of killing them: for though you handle 
Watps, Humble-Bees and Hornets ever fo lit- 
tle, they immediately difcharge their virus or 
poifon out of their formidable fling, and then 
none of it is found in the bladder, which is 
otherwife full of it. I preferve fome fuch 
bladders in my collection, as moft extremely 
meriting the infpeCtion of the curious. 
200 
N AGT U RUE: or, 
The poifon is collected in the following 
manner: draw the fting and poifon-bladder 
together out of the body, and then the blad- 
der, as I reprefent in Tab. XVIII. figure v. 
being taken with the tip of the fingers, put the 
point or top of the fting into a thin glafs tube, 
and then prefs or {queeze the poifon into the 
latter through the fting out of the bladder: 
you may afterwards blow the poifon together 
into another glafs veffel, and make the experi- 
ment thereon ; but all this muft be done very 
{peedily, fince this poifon is eafily coagulated 
when out of the body. Another method is 
to wound the bladder a little, and then to im- 
merge or put into it the top of a thin glafs 
tube; and thus the humour will defcend {pon- 
taneoufly, or be forced into the tube: but the 
former method is better than the latter for thofe 
who are expert in thefe things. 
When the poifon is expreffed out of its blad- 
der, it very eafily exhales, by reafon of its fub- 
tile and fpirituous nature, leaving a confiderable 
cruft on the glafs, which when {craped off ap- 
pears like duft: whether this duft has ftill any 
poifon, is yet unknown to me. ‘The poifon 
which the Bee difcharges through its fting in 
the form of a round drop, fometimes concretes 
about the fting itfelf, preferving the fame round 
fhape, and thus affords a very agreeable fpec- 
tacle, for it refembles a little drop of clear 
water, hanging as it were. out of the fting. 
When the Bee hath given a wound, the fting, 
as Ihave obferved before, ufually remains in 
the wound by means of its hooks. But whe- 
ther the Bee can wound or pierce the skin with 
its fheath only, and fo not leave its fting in. 
the wound, is ftill unknown to me. The 
fheath is indeed very fharp. The Bee there- 
fore feems able to wound with this alone, if 
it draws in the fting at that time; fince we 
likewife obferve, that this fting is not always 
equally prominent out of the cafe; it fome- 
times lies entirely out of the extremity of the 
fheath, and is fometimes lower and fome- 
times higher up in this its cafe. 
When the fting remains fixed in the wound 
the Bee muft die; for, befides the fting itfelf, 
the Bee then lofes its inteftinum rectum, or the 
ftraight gut, and the parts annexed to it; nay, 
even the horny parts and their ligaments are 
broken off from the extreme rings of the body, 
to which they are united. And we are parti- 
cularly to obferve here, that the whole poifon- 
bladder, together with the fting, is then drawn 
out of the Bee’s body; and as it remains out 
of it, it ftill comprefies itfelf- by the laft aftion 
of its mufcular fibres, and drives its. poifon 
deeper into the wound. For this reafon, if any 
one be ftung by a Bee, it 1s by no means pro- 
per to take the fting by the hind part in order 
to extract it or get it out, becaufe, by this 
means more poifon is always thrown into the 
wound. It would be better to cut off with 
a pair of {ciffors all the parts of the fting which 
hang out of the wound, and then to take out 
the 
