4] 
care not to shed any blood; let all the orifices, mouth, eyes, nose etc, be stopped 
up with clean and fine linen, impregnated with pitch: let a quantity of thyme 
be strewed under the reclining animal, and then let windows and doors be 
closed and covered with a thick coating of clay, to prevent the access of air 
or wind, Three weeks later let the house ‘be opened, and let light and fresh 
air get access to it, except from the side from which the wind blows strongest. 
After eleven days you will find the house full of bees, hanging together in 
clusters, and nothing left of the ox but horns, bones and hair, ete.“ 
It is the hermetic shutting up of the house, or shed, which 
was principally ridiculed by Redi (Esperienze ete. p. 57), who 
observes, with apparent good reason, that putrescent matter, 
shut off in that way, would produce nothing; but that on the 
contrary, when exposed in the open air it would attract flies, 
and breed worms. And yet, this very peculiarity of the pro- 
cess, aS I am going to show, is the best means for obtaining 
the oxen-born bee, because it happens to agree with its pecu- 
liar habits of life. The larva of Hristals being aquatic, requires 
a pool of stagnant water, containing putrescent organic matter. 
A carcase, left in the open air, is at once attacked by the 
ordinary carcase-loving flies, Lweilia, Calliphora etc. During the 
second stage of putrescence, a pool of corrupt water is formed 
about the carcase, and then is the time for Hristalis to appear 
(comp. the description of Zetterstedt in Suppl. VII). In climates, 
like those of Italy and North Africa in which dry summers pre- 
vail, dessication goes on rapidly, and the carcase might easily 
dry up before reaching the second stage. The process of the 
Geoponica is calculated to delay that dessication as long as 
possible; at the same time it has the advantage of shutting 
out the Luciliae and Calliphorae, winecessary for the purpose in 
view. The shutting up is therefore, in this case, perfectly 
rational; in excluding these flies it could not exclude Lristalis 
tenax which, as our experience with canalizations etc. teaches 
us, is impelled by instinct to crawl into dark places. The de- 
tails of the process: the mangling of flesh and bones to make 
them softer, and their putrefaction easier; the care taken not 
to shed any blood (1), and stopping up, for that purpose, all 
(1) ,Florentinns particularly insists that no blood is to be drawn, a pro- 
