70 
It is beyond my competence to discuss the glycogenic pro- 
perties of the liver and their attractiveness for bees and wasps. 
I shall merely state the difference between Lahille’s hypothesis 
and mine. His theory does not explain the persistent efforts of 
the ancients, during centuries, to obtain oxen-born bees from 
carcases. He occupies the old standpoint of commentators and 
translators who merely derided the stories about such efforts, 
although they could not deny that they had actually taken 
place. My attempt on the contrary was to prove that the oxen- 
born bee and wasp of the ancients are the same as the ,mouche- 
abeille* (Hristalis) and ,guépe-abeille* (Helophilus) of Réaumur, 
and I have shown, by a detailed analysis of the process used 
at that time, that the ancients had discovered the best pos- 
sible manipulation for the purpose of obtaining just these flies, 
and no others. In the numerous mentions of the Bugonia among 
ancient authors (Greek or Latin), it is always brought in in con- 
nection with rottenness and carcases. The association of honey- 
bees, cleanly animals, with rottenness is out of the question; 
when they are attracted by meat, or sugar-bearing liver, it is 
by fresh meat and sweet liver. In attempting to adapt the 
myth of Aristaeus to his theory, Mr. Lahille most palpably 
misunderstands the true sense of Virgil. He says: ,Aristaeus 
chooses eight young herbivores, eight splendid beasts. He im- 
molates them near a wood; the entrails are left open, and, 
some time afterwards the bees, more and more numerous, alight 
upon the liver to suck the accumulated sugary matter; they even 
make the branches of the trees bend under their weight.‘ 
Virgil distinctly says that the bees emerged from within 
the carcase, and did not come from without; and he does not 
say that the entrails were left in the open air. In my Suppl. I 
I have given a detailed account of the episode in Virgil and I 
refer to it. The above-quoted passage of Lahille is not a ren- 
dering of verses 550—559, which sum up the episode and des- 
cribe the rush of the swarm from within the carcase: 
.... liquefacta boum per viscera toto 
Stridere apes utero et ruptis effervere costis. 
