The 
the reft with a {mall needle. I have fometimes 
feen the flomach itfelf drawn with the fling 
out of the body of the Bee. 
If you would render the poifon of the Bee 
ineffe@tual, and the Bee itfelf tame, make it, 
thruft its fting into a piece of leather, and then 
cut off the top of it; by this means all the 
poifon flows out of it, and the creature becomes 
tractable and gentle whilft it lives, nor can it 
afterwards, though it fhould probably generate 
poifon anew, do any mifchief. 
From’ what has been here faid, it appears 
how dangerous it is to irritate Hornets, fince 
they have very formidable arms, and always 
carry poifon about them. 
In Hornets the poifon-bladder is exceffively 
firm, and is twice as big as in Bees. The 
learned Mouffet relates a very remarkable thing 
of thefe creatures: -he fays, the very accurate 
Penny faw a Hornet kill a Sparrow with a 
ftroke of its fting. Thefe are his words: 
 Whilft Penny was at Peterborough in Eng- 
** land, he faw in the ftreet a Hornet in pur- 
** fuit of a Sparrow, which it ftruck at laft 
‘* with its fting and immediately killed it, and, 
“* to the great aftonifhment of the {peCtators, 
** fed itfelf with the blood of the dead Spar- 
“ row.” How terrible thefe creatures are on 
account of this poifon which they carry about 
them, is likewife evident from the promife for- 
merly made by God to the Ifraelites in Exod. 
xxiii. ‘© I will fend, I fay, my terror, like a 
«¢ Hornet before you, who fhall drive out the 
‘© Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from 
“© before thee.’ But God has no need of thefe 
hofts to chaftife his people; he can do it even 
by the fmalleft infects, and convert the duft 
of the earth into Lice, if the number of other 
plagues fhould chance to fail: for what is 
above the power of him who fhews himfelf 
adorable in all his works ? 
The queen or female Bee is furnifhed with 
a fting, as I fhall afterwards defcribe in the dif 
fection of .that kind. Among the Hornets 
the females only have ftings, which are longer, 
fharper, and  ftronger than in the Bee, and 
armed with feveral frightful hooks. How the 
males of the Humble Bees and Wajfps are cir- 
cumftanced, in this refpet, I have not been 
yet able to examine, on account of the variety 
of bufinefs wherein I am engaged. I would 
only have it obferved here, that the males of 
the Hornet have no fting, in like manner as 
the drone or male is without it among Bees ; 
that the males of thefe two fpecies agree in 
this refpect, and are very peaceable creatures, 
free from all mifchief and injurious defigns, 
and delight in love and generation only. There 
is the like meeknefs obferved alfo in the males 
of Ants, and their teeth are therefore much 
{maller than thofe of the females: among Ants 
BY A SS TPOX RAY 
of 21 N 8) Cares: "201 
alfo there is a third fpecies which do not con- 
tribute to generation, but ferve only to rear up 
their young. 
I have before given my opinion of the prin- 
cipal ufe of this poifon inthe Bee, that is, I 
think it contributes to prepare what is called 
the Bee-bread into wax: this, however, requires 
to be yet more accurately inveftigated. The 
whole fting, neverthelefs, great as it is, feems 
to be appointed only to do mifchief, and form- 
ed by nature folely for that parpofe, that the 
Bees may, by the help of it, defend their 
young againit the infults of other creatures, 
and feed them in fecurity. Since therefore the 
nourifhing of the ftock is committed to the 
common working Bees, hence it feems pro- 
bable that they, particularly about the time of 
fwarming, and a litle after, are as furious and 
as much inclined to fting and do mifchief with 
their poifon, as they are eager to preferve as 
well the iffue committed to them, as their own 
proper food. It would not be improper to 
conclude from thence, that the fting and the 
power of doing hurt with it, are given them 
on that account. The truth of this will be 
more evident to any one who confiders that 
the females of the Hornets are likewife pro- 
vided with fuch weapons, though they never 
- form any wax, bat build their habitations prin- 
cipally, as it appears, of the bark of trees faf= 
tened together. Hence various colours are 
obferved in their nefts, according to the variety 
of the bark of trees which they have ufed in 
building them. We likewife fee in the time 
of copulation with what fury the Stag ftorms 
and rages if any one comes near him: this 
Harvey very accurately defcribes from experi- 
ence. Nay, even the otherwife inoffenfive do- * 
meftic fowls will fly in the face of thofe who 
endeavour to take away their young, and even 
Bitches and Cats, however mild and gentle they 
are, yet cannot endure to have their whelps 
and kittens touched. Thefe are the arguments 
which nature fupplies for eftablifhing the ufe 
of the poifon. But that the poifon, in prefe- 
rence to any thing elfe, is given to thefe in- 
fe€ts with defign to hurt mankind and all other 
animals by it, and that their fting alfo, as fome 
think, is made to torment and harrafs the hu- 
man {pecies for the hereditary ftain of mortal 
fin, is -moft abfurd, and plainly contrary to 
the infinite goodnefg of God: he does not vex 
or torment but kindly chaftifes, unlefs when 
the number of their fins voluntarily committed 
are increafed beyond all meafure. I fhall here 
conclude this differtation on the working Bee, 
fince it is not granted to us to fearch perfedtly 
into the divine works with our limited thallow 
underftandings *. I have propofed the ‘mat- 
ter, and with my own hands defcribed and de- 
lineated the firuation, firucture and ufe of their 
* The Bee has been honoured with the notice of philofophers from the earlieft time. What Virgil has faid of this infe@ is 
principally from Ariftotle. Theophraftus has alfo wrote exprefsly on them, and we read of a greck naturalift who ¢etired from 
human kind, and paffed a long time in the woods to obfervé them. But the labours of all thefe anfwered little purpofe: it is 
not till very lately that we have underftood their nature, and we owe more to Swammerdam than to any, one author in this 
inquiry. 
Fff parts. 
