4 
of the principle: omne vivum ex ovo, proclaimed by William 
Harvey (1651) and by the great Italian naturalist Redi (1668) ; 
2.° among the ignorant crowd, to the introduction of a 
sanitary police, which prevents carcases from lying about, and 
affording the spectacle of bee-like flies swarming around them. 
§ 2. — Causes of the long duration of the Bugonia-craze and 
circumstances of its final confutation. 
Modern commentators of Greek and Latin authors have 
treated the Bugonia with a contemptuous sneer, (1) without 
taking into consideration that a superstition so universal and 
so persistent cannot be dismissed so easily, and must neces- 
sarily have some foundation in fact. The refutation of an error 
is not complete, until the source of the error is revealed. In 
a short paper on the geographical distribution of the fly Hris- 
(1) Examples of the treatment of the Bugonia by different authors: 
JOH. BECKMAN, editor of Antigonus Carystius (compare the Lust of 
authorities) says: ,Verum tanti non est multum tempus insumere in originem 
inquirendam fabulae extra modum absurdae quam gravissimis et firmissimis 
argumentis confecit Franciscus Redi.“ (Zranslation. ,It is not worth while to 
waste one’s time in inquiring into the origin of such a remarkably absurd fable, 
which Redi has confuted with the strongest arguments.) 
J. H. VOSS, in his Commentary to the Georgies, is equally contemptuous. 
DR. PH. H. KULB, the translator of Pliny (in Osiander und Schwab’s 
Collection) Stuttgard, 1853, p. 1286 says: Dass alles hier tiber die Wiederbelebung 
und Wiederherstellung der Bienen gesagte, Unsinn ist, braucht kaum bemerkt 
zu werden. 
ROBERT-TORNOW, p. 27, &@ propos of the beautiful passage of Ovid 
(Fasti, I, 380) ,,mille animas una necata dedit“, quotes an absurd interpretation 
of it by W. Menzelius (Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeitslehre, Leipzig 1870, II, 13, 
p. 122): ,Wenn nun auch Ovid vermuthet, die Seele des Stieres gehe, weil er so 
viele Pflanzen gefressen habe, zur Strafe in unzihlige Bienenseelen tiber, welche 
die Pflanzen nur liebkosen, ohne sie zu verletzen, so ist das doch ein guter 
Witz, und die griechische Mysterienlehre nimmt das Sinnbild viel ernsthafter.“ 
(Translation.) ,Now, when Ovid, also, surmises that the soul of the ox, because 
he has devoured so many plants, is, as a punishment, changed into innumerable 
bee-souls, which caress, but do not injure plants, this must he taken as a merry 
conceit, whilst the Greek mystery-lore takes the symbol far more seriously.“ 
