A BEE'S STING by Washington Star

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 4, 1893

A BEE'S STING.

By Washington Star

THE sting of a bee is composed of two spears of polished horn held in a sheath. One gets a notion of the sharpness of the weapon by a very simple comparison. The edge of a very keen razor, when examined under a good microscope, appears as broad as the back of a thick knife, rough, uneven, and full of notches. An exceedingly small and delicate needle similarly scrutinized resembles a rough bar from a smith's forge. The sting of a bee, viewed through the same instrument, shows a flawless polish, without the least blemish or inequality, ending in a point too fine to be discerned.

In the act of stinging, the spears, each of which has nine barbs and is grooved with a channel for the passage of the poison, emerge from the sheath. One of them is plunged into the flesh of the victim, the other following, and alternately they penetrate deeper and deeper. The venom is forced to the end of the spears by much the same process as that which carries the poison from the tooth of a snake when it bites.