200 
make the wax ; but the Wafps and Hornets 
deftroy this opinion, which are furnifhed with 
4 fting and poifon, though they make no wax. 
Nor does the female Bee prepare any wax, 
nor even defend its young ; fo that this ufe 
The B OCO°K. of N AgY UR #s- of 
alfo may be queftioned or difputed. Behold 
then, reader, how difficult it is to inveltigate 
nature in her works, and learn with me, to 
clofe your lips, and candidly confefs our general 
ignorance and weaknefs. 
The pirft obfervation on the female Bee. 
HE better to illuftrate what has been 
here advanced of the fting and its poifon, 
as alfo of the ovary, I fhall add fome particular 
obfervations, which I have fince the writing 
.the former account made on the female Eee. 
On the 16th of June I opened a hive, and I 
found in it feveral fovereigns or females, which 
were foon after to fwarm, yet lying covered 
in their waxen cells: Of this I was very certain, 
becaufe I found them with their skins caft, 
and with expanded wings, nay they were ready 
to arife out of their cells. In the firft of thefe 
which I diffected, an ovary occurred, but was 
not very diftincily confpicuous. I was obliged 
to make ufe of a powerful microfcope to exa- 
mine it, but then I faw that there were nu- 
merous oviduéts in it, and the eggs themfelves 
as it were innumerable on account of theif 
fmalinefs: I really think there were ten or 
twelve thoufandof them. I could diftinGly have 
counted them, if I had had a mind to have un- 
dertaken the laborious office of feparatin g them 
from each other: the eggs themfelves, com- 
pared with thofe which I had before obferved 
in the female Bee, at the time fhe is engaged 
in laying eggs were {till very fmall, nay, thofe 
which were in the extreme ends of the ovi- 
ducts were fo wonderfully minute, and fo thick 
placed together, that I could not diftinguith 
them, but by the help of my moft powerful 
microfcope. I have likewife obferved the ovary 
invefted here as with a common membrane, 
which I confefs I never before faw fo di- 
ftinéily. 
The fecond obfervation on the female Bee. 
N a fimilar female Bee, produced at the 
fame time, but more mature, which, with 
fome thoufand of other Bees had fwarmed 
out of its native hive, and was received into 
another, I faw that the ovary was likewife yet 
confiderably fmall, nor did even the eggs ap- 
pear much larger, than if they wete yet in 
their rudiments ; and hence I concluded, that 
this female was but juft excluded from her 
cell, when fhe flew away in this {warm out 
of her native hive. I could not in that fubject’ 
obferve many remarkable things further, nor 
in others, though I had many females ready, 
for all of them died in the {pace of one or two 
days. But though I threw them into fpirit of 
wine to keep them from drying, yet many of 
the vifcera were, to my great concern, fpoiled : 
the reafon of which was probably becaufe I 
did not make ufe of a {fpirit fufficiently recti-- 
fied. I obferved that the poifon in fome of 
them was converted toa white matter, nearly 
without tafte or ftrength, which when ex- 
pofed to the air dried up and evaporated. In 
another I faw the poifon feparated and con- 
denfed into irregular white grains, and I could 
very diftinétly fee in that Bee the whole 
poifon duct, which is connected with the 
hinder part of the poifon-bladder, and which 
perhaps fecretes the poifon, covered over with 
coagulated particles of fat, which could not be _ 
eafily wiped off. 
The third obfervation on the female Bee. 
OBSERVED in another female, which I 
diffeéted about the fame time, that one of 
the extremities of the poifon duét was fubdi- 
vided into two other clofed but fhort appen-. 
dages. When I meafured the poifon dud, 
from the bag to its firft divifion, I found it to 
be a quarter of an Holland inch long, and 
that one of the branches of this divided duct 
was almoft half an inch long; and the other 
almoft two inches. However, thefe things 
cannot be obferved, unlefs one has firft very 
cautioufly feparated all the curvature and fer-— 
pentine windings of thefe ducts from the reft 
of the vifcera. Though this Bee had likewife 
lain in fpirit of wine, yet all thefe parts were 
very diftinétly confpicuous and ftrong in it. 
The 
