26 
horses, and dung-beetles from dead asses, snakes grow out 
from the human body, when the fluid in the vertebrae cvagu- 
lates and is hardened. This observation caused the ancients 
to revere snakes, above all animals, as being connected with 
heroes. “ 
I have already noticed above (p. 8) that the Greek author 
who was the best informed about bees (Aristotle) never men- 
tions the Bugonia, although he was a believer in spontaneous 
generation. In the two works in which he treats of bees, the 
»History of Animals“ and ,On the origin of animals‘, not a 
word is to be found about the origin of bees from oxen. ‘The 
celebrated Italian naturalist Ulysses Aldrovandi, who wrote 
about two thousand years after Aristotle is astonished at this 
omission. In his volume: De animalibus insectis (Bologna, 1602), 
p. 58, he says: ,Mirum insuper cur Aristoteles e bove nasci 
(apes) etiam non scripserit, quin nescierit; nam Plinius Virgi- 
lium citat, non Aristotelem.“ (It is strange that Aristotle has 
nothing to say about bees, originating from oxen, as if he knew 
nothing about it; because Pliny quotes Virgil and not Ari- 
stotle.) (1) 
Now Aristotle was very cautious in his statements about 
the generation of bees, as appears in the following passage 
concerning the relations between queens, drones and working 
bees: The facts observed are as yet not sufficient, but in case 
they were, we ought to attach more importance to observed 
facts, than to theories, and to believe in theories then only, 
when they agree with the facts.‘ (Aristotle, On the Origin of 
Animals, III, 101. I follow the translation of Drs. Aubert and 
Wimmer, Leipzig, 1860, p. 267.) 
The juxtaposition of Aristotle and Aldrovandi as scientific 
observers affords a striking illustration of the stagnant state 
(1) Vallisnieri has this about Aldrovandi (Hsperienze etc. p. 147; 1726): 
quello che ammiro, si é, che !’Aldrovando non ha altro fondamento di dubitare, 
se non che, come e’ dice, id ab Aristotele neutiquam animadversum video. 
Ii perch’ egli @ Aristotele, bisogna 
Credergli, ancorché dica la menzogna. 
