69 
IX. 
A new hypothesis about the origin of the Bugonia-superstition. 
Professor A. Giard, in Paris, kindly communicated to me 
an article by Mr. F. Lahille, which appeared in the periodical 
»Le Naturaliste*, Paris, 15th August 1891, p. 198—199, and is 
entitled; Le rdle du foie chez les Anciens. — Allégorie d’ Aristée. 
The purpose of this article is to show that the sugar-excreting 
(glycogenic) function of the liver, discovered by Claude Ber- 
nard, was known to bees and wasps long ago (,peut-étre bien 
avant Vapparition de ’homme sur la terre‘), and that the an- 
cients, having made this observation, used to attract bees by 
the exposure of the liver of dead animals, and thus to feed 
them during unfavorable seasons, when flowers were scanty. 
» the ancients had noticed, says Lahille, that during bad sea- 
sons, bees were fond of alighting on the liver of dead animals, 
but they went beyond the limits of observation when they assu- 
med that honey-bees were bred in the substance itself of the 
liver. Virgil did not perhaps admit these ideas of spontaneous 
generation, and his aim may have been merely to prove that a 
learned man is the master of nature, and that he can produce 
life from death. The great poet attributes to the Egyptians the 
discovery which he announces, and this is a confirmation of the 
authenticity of the fact, and of the explanation which I offer 
of the allegory of Aristaeus.* (1) 
(1) ,Les anciens avaient donc remarqué que dans les mauvaises saisons 
les abeilles se posent de préférence sur les foies des animaux, mais 1a ow ils 
dépassaient les limites de Vobservation, c’est lorsqu’ils croyaient que les mouches 
3, miel naissent de la substance meme du foie. Virgile peut-¢tre n’admettait 
point ces idées de génération spontanée et a-t-il voulu simplement indiquer que 
le savant est Je maitre de la nature et qu’il sait tirer la vie de la mort. Le 
grand podte attribue aux Kgyptiens la découverte qwil signale et c’est une con- 
firmation de Pauthenticité du fait et de explication que je propose de Pallégorie 
WAristée* (p. 199, first column, near the bottom). 
