The HISTORY 
Bees, and a quantity of honey in the Lion’s 
carcafs*. However ftrange this event may ap- 
pear, even to the ingenious and fagacious ob- 
ferver of Bees, I can difcover nothing like a 
paradox in the relation. The context clearly 
_ proves that the thing happened in the midft of 
4 
=, 
fummer, at which feafon the carca({s of any ani- 
mal that had perifhed by a violent or natural 
death, would in a fhort {pace of time be fo en- 
‘tirely cleared of its flefh, as to form no more 
than a skeleton. In this the Bees might find a 
commodious habitation. Is it not a common 
thing to meet on the roads with the ribs and 
other bones of dead animals, fo thoroughly 
{tripped of the flefh, and at the fame time co- 
vered with part of the skin fo dried, and in a 
manner tanned, by the weather, that infects 
may find under it fufficient thelter and conve- 
nient lodging ? No doubt: the text runs as fol- 
lows: After fome days Sampfon founda fwarm 
of Bees in the Lion’s carcafs. We muff, indeed, 
underftand by thefe words, that the interval 
between his killing the Lion and finding the 
honey in its carcafe was not very long; nor is 
there any occafion for underftanding them other~ 
wife, fince at the time that Bees {warm, there 
are many infects, efpecially the Worms from 
which the common Flies fpring, which, from 
their ravenoufne{s and great numbers, may de- 
your, in a few hours as I may fay, the carcaffes 
of dead animals tothe very bones. There are 
many {pecies of Flies that will {mell a carcafs at 
a great diftance, and immediately depofit their 
eggs on it, as a proper place for their little Worms 
when hatched, as they very foon are, to finda 
food fuited to their nature. It is almoft incredi- 
ble how faft thefe Worms will grow, and how 
fuddenly they will eat up all the flefh of a car- 
cafs. I have experienced this by hanging a dead 
Duck to the branch of an apple-tree, at the 
feafon when Bees fwarm: in three days after 
the Worms have fuddenly broke from their 
eggs, the Duck’s fief and entrails have been 
entirely confumed, nothing remaining but the 
bones and a few tendons, fo that with very little 
pains it might have been formed into a perfect 
flkeleton. We fee in this inftance how greedily 
thefe Worms devour, and how faft they grow, 
immediately upon leaving their eggs. The fame 
obfervation alfo has been before made by that 
curious naturalift, the iluftrious Redi, in his 
experiments concerning the generation of in- 
fects. His words are thefe: ** What was moft 
** furprifing, the Worms were fo much grown 
*“ by the next day, that they each weighed 
“« about feven grains ; whereas before twenty 
*< or thirty of them did not exceed one grain. 
«© The other Worms that fill continued to 
‘* come from the eggs began, as I may fay, in 
‘ the twinkling of an eye, to devour what 
oft N Sie Cot. S. 227 
** flefh remained on the Fithes, foon leaving 
** the bones quite bare like fo many {keletons, 
‘¢ that would not have fhamed the hands of the 
«¢ beft anatomift in Europe.” I remember that 
as I was once travelling on a very hot fummer’s 
day through the province of Utrecht, in my 
way to Culemburgh, in order to make'fome ob- 
fervations on the Ephemerus, I took notice of 
a dead Horfe that lay by the fide of the road, 
and was fo fultof Worms, that no part of its 
flefh could be any longer diftinguifhed ; nor 
was the number of thefe infects more fur- 
prifing, than the waving motion they produced 
in the remains of the flefh, bowels, and other 
parts of the carcafs,which by that means appear~ 
edin a manner {till poffeffed of life and motion. 
A great number of the Worms, unable to find 
room and nourifhment in it, were then crawling 
on the road, where the heat and duft foon 
ftifled them. Another time I had an opportu- 
nity of obferving to what a degree of perfection 
thefe are pofleffed of the fenfe of {melling ; for 
having put fome little Worms hatched from 
the eggs of Bees into a box, in order to trace 
and examine, if poflible, their change into Bees, 
a few of them died ; they were no fooner dead, 
than, the box not being well fhut, fome little 
Flies took notice of their carcafles as a proper 
nidi for food and fhelter to receive their eggs, 
Accordingly I had Worms produced in them 
in a very fhort time, which at length changed 
to that fpecies, which I call the fourth order of 
natural mutations, and in a few days after per- 
fe&tly refembled in fize, ftru€ture, and form, 
the Flies from whofe eggs they were originally 
produced. Things of this kind occur moft 
frequently in very hot fummers ; for then both 
the Flies and: their Worms are multiplied in a 
furprifing manner. When the bones of animals 
have been once cleared from their fleth in the 
manner already mentioned, it is no difficult 
matter to conceive how they may in a little 
time be fo wathed by rain, as fcarce to be 
diftinguifhable from the purett ivory. 
As then it plainly appears by the hiftory of 
Sampfon, that his adventure of the Lion hap- 
pened about the time when Bees {warm, make 
their combs, and fill them with honey, we muft 
of courfe fuppofe it was during the great heats 
of fummer, when Flies lay their eggs ; fo that 
the offspring of thefe eggs might, in all proba- 
bility, have devoured the fleth and entrails of 
the Lion, within the time requifite to {olve all 
the difficulty that can be ftarted upon this 
occafion ; befides, alternate rains, funthine, and 
dew, may be eafily fuppofed capable not only 
of bleaching, as already faid, but of purifying 
alfo, and freeing from all manner of ftench, or 
difagreeable {mell, the bones that remained, fo 
as upon the whole to make the carcafs, or rather 
* The conftruction of the cells of the Willow Bee is very extraordinary, nor are thefe found in combs: they are frequent in 
our fen countries. 
I have feen thoufands of them in Lincolnfhire; the Worms make theméelves cafes of the leaves, and bury 
themfelves in the rotten part of the wood. The Worm of the working or hive Bee is a very weak creature, but thefe are vigorous 
and attive: they wrap feveral entire leaves round their bodies, 
and faften up the ends of this hollow cylinder with pieces of 
other leaves gnawed off for that purpofe, and ftuck together with a kind of wax, made principally from. the buttons of water 
flowers. Thus they lie covered and buried till their change. 
This fhews nature ufes various methods. 
the 
