Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/289

 bee

to thfc bottom of the chain. Thelargcft clutters are out/ a taultipHcity of thefe chains, of which there are fometimes many hundreds together. The bees never lay hold of any part of one another, except the legs, thofe being the moil: proper for fattening to one another by. Reaumur, Hift. Infect. Vol. 9. P- 2 73-

The flruclure and anatomy of the bee are defcribed by divers natural ills. The parts chiefly ufed in their labours are, two fcrapers wherewith they gather wax ; two arms wherewith they work hi making combs; and another part, called by LeUWenhoeck a wiper, wherewith he fuppofed them to wipe the honey from off the flowers 3. But this laft part Dr. Gar- den choofes to denominate the fucker, or probofcis, as being; hollow, and compofed of circular fibres, and ferving to im^ bibe or fuck up the honey from plants b .— [ a Leuwenh, in Phil. Tranf. N° 94. p. 6038. b Garden, ap. Phil. Tranf. N J 175- P- 1 1 5 8 - See alfo Maraldi, in Mem. Acad. Scienc.

17 12- p. 39-.]

The fttng of the bee is a very curious weapon, and when exa- mined by the microfcope, appears of a very furprifing ftruc- ture. It has a horny {heath or fcabbard, which includes two bearded darts. This fheath ends in a fharp point, near the ex^ tremity of which a flit opens, through which, at the time of Ringing;, the two bearded darts are protruded beyond the end of the Iheath : one of thefe is a little longer than the other, and fixes its beard firfl, and the other inflantly following, they pe- netrate alternately deeper and deeper, taking hold of the flefh with their beards cr hooks, till the whole fling Is buried in the flefh ; and then a venomous juice is injected through the fame fheath, from a little bag at the root of the fling-, which occa- sions an acute pain, and a fwelling of the part, which fome- times continues feverardays. But this is bell prevented by in- farging the wound directly, to give it fome difchar^e. Mr. Derham counted on the fling of a wafp eight beards on the fide of each dart, fomewhat like the beards of fifh-hooks; and the fame number are to be counted on the darts of the bee's &Ing.

When the'e beards are frruck deep In the flefh, if the wound- vd perfon flnrts, or difcompofes the bee before it can difen"-a<re them, the fling is left behind flicking in the wound ; but if he have patience to fland quiet, the creature brings the hooks down clofe to the Tides of the darts, and withdraws the wea- pon ; in which cafe, the wound is always much lefs painful. A wafp is not fo liable to leave its fling in the wound as a bee, the beards of it being fhorter, and the creature more vigorous and nimble in its motions.

To view the fling of a bee by the microfcope, the end of the tail is to be cut off, and thenj touching it with a pin or needle, it will thruft out the fling and darts, which may be cut off "with a nice pair of fciflars, and kept for obfervation : or, if a lee be caught in a leather-glove, its fling will be left in the glove, the creature being unable to difengage iP from the leather. The bag containing the poifonous juice may eafdy be found at the bottom of the fling, and examined, it being commonly pulled out with it ; and if a living bee be provoked toflrike with its fling againft a plate of glafs, enough of the liquor will be left on the glafs for examination ; and the falts of it may be feen forming themfelves into cryflals. Baker's Microfcope, p. 310.

For the manner wherein the honey and waxy humors are fe- creted from the juices of the plant, authors are divided. Some fuppofe it done by coagulating the vegetable juices j others by only feparatiiig the cafeous parts thereof already coagulated. Phil Tranf. N° 2:4. p. 368. See alfo Maraldi, ubi fupra, p. 391 &i 4.38. Sec Honey, Wax, tsV. By the accurate cbfervations of meflieurs Maraldi and de Reau- mur, it has been found, that the bafes of the cells of bees are of that pyramidical figure, which requires the lead wax for containing the fame quantity of honey.

Thefe bafes are formed from three equal rhombufes, the ob- tufe angles of which are found to be double of the angle,whofe tangent is to the radius, as the diagonal is to the fide of a fquare. Phil. Tranf. N° 4-!. §. 1.

Monfieur Maraldi c found them* by menfuration to be nearly 110 ; and obferved, that if the three obtufe angles, forming the folid anghs of the bafe of the cell, were fuppofed equal to each other,- they mufl be of log" 28. And Mr. Konig, by the method of infinitefimals, found, that the an"!e in queflion ought to be 1 09° 26'. But Mr. Maclaurin has lately demon flrated, from the elements of geometry, that the mofl advan- tageous angle is the fame which refults from the fuppofed equa- lity of the three plane angles forming the folid angle ; and that the tangent of half of this angle Is to the radius, as ^2 to 1, or as 14142135 to ioooooco ; and confequently the half angle is 54 44' 08", and the whole iog° 28' i6'' d . — [ c Mem. Acad. Scienc. 1712. d Phil. Tranf. ibid. p. 569.] By this conftruction, the infects fave a good deal of their la- hour and wax. How they arrive at this inflincl is a queflion of a higher nature ; but it is remarkable, that their cells, by being hexagonal, are the mofl capacious, in proportion to their furface, of any regular figures that leave no interflices between them, and at the fame time admit of the mofl perfect bafes, and fuch, that their conftruction could not have been better contriv- ed from the greatefl knowledge of geometry. See Alveolus, Suppl. Vox., I.

Bee

Mr. Dudly (pedes of a method of hunting of bees, or finding of tei-nefts, pracWqj of l.ite years in the woods in New Eno-'i land. It confifts in catching a bee, then letting it fly, and obferving the way it fteers : this (hews the hunter the courfe or bearing of the neft. To find the diftance, he takes an off- fet of an hundred perches, and lets fly another beef the angle or point wherein thefe two courfes interfe£t, is the place of the neft. Phil. Tranf. N° 367. p. 148.

Writers on husbandry and country affairs give many directions concerning the taking, removing, feeding, breeding, hiving, (fa of bets, on which their thriving much depends. Vid. Dift ; Rufh in voc.

Btes fwarm ordinarily about the middle of May : a fwaflrt early in March is reckoned very extraordinary Vid. Phil. Tranf. N» 70. p. 2128.

Divers attempts have been made to get the young brood into new hives, without endangering their going forth in fwarms to feek a new refidence. Vid. D\& Ruft. in voc. Phil. Tranf. N° 96. p. 6076. See Hiving and Swarms. Many authors have written on bees. Among the anticnts, Ari- ftomachus is faid to have itudied them fixty years ; Phillifcus retired into a defert wood, that he might have the opportunity of obferving them to better advantage ; Ariftotle made a great number of curious ohfervations on this infeft, which Virgil has put into Latin Verfe : they have been inlarged and con- firmed by Pliny and others. Theopbraftus has a fragment Hill extant wsg. ^;A ( f«», concerning bees ; or, as intitled in Laer- tius, ninhV, of honey. Fabric. Ribl. Grzc. I. 3. c. 9. §. 12. Among the moderns, prince Frederic Cefi, inftitutor of the Roman academy of fcienccs, wrote exprefly on bees ; but it is not known what became of the MS. no more than of that promifed by Swammerdam on the anatomy of the bee, the want of which has been much regretted ' among the French '. Among the Englifh, Butler, Gurnay, Levets, Southern, Rem- nant, Hartlib, Rufden, Warder, and others, have difcourfes exprefs on beei.-[ • Vid. Phil. Tranf. N» 257. p. 365. ' Vid. Mem. Acad. Scienc. 1712. p. 391, feq.]

Bee is alfo ufed figuratively to denote fweetnefs, induftry, tfc'i Thus Xenophon is called the Attic bee, on account of the great fweetnefs of his ffyle s. Antonius got the denomination me- lijfa, or bee, on account of his collection of common-places h , — ['Mem. Acad. Infer. T. 9. p. 1. ' Vid. Fabric. Bibt Grace. 1. 5. c. 30. T. 8. p. 821.]

Leo A'llatias gave the appellation apes urbane to the illuftrious men at Rome from the year 1630 to the year 1632. Bail. Jugem. des Scav. T. 5; P. i< p. 187.

Bees bread. See Pain d'abeiles.

BE£-eater, in zoology. See Apivorus lutee*

BEE-Jiy. See DltONE-_/fy.

BEE-hive. See Hive.

BEECH, Fagus, (Cycl.) in botany, a tree of the maft-beafing kind, confiderably ufed in its wood, fruit, oil, leaves, and wa- ter. See Fagus.

Beccb-vrood is whitifh, hard, and dry. It crackles in the fire* and is ufed in building and furniture ; alfo to make utenfils, as (hovels, ladles, bellows, (tools, fhoes, difhes, trays, trenchers, dreffer-boards, fillies of carts, CSV.

If beech-timber be kept altogether under water, it is Htde infe- rior to elm ; but if kept dry, or partly wet, partly dry, it is liable to the worm.

That of the mountain beech is whiteft, and mod fit for the turn- er's ufe ; that of the field beech is blacker, but more durable. In turning beech, it yields a well-fcentcd effluvia, not unlike rofes. Boyle, Phil. Work, abridg. T. I. p. 54.5. The fcale of bcecb-teood ferves to make fcabbards and band- boxes. The bark is ufed as floats for fifhers nets, inftead of cork. Its (havings are of ufe for fining wine. Its afhes, according to Crefcentius, with proper mixtures, are excellent to make glafs*

Its leaves, gathered about the fall, before they are much froft- bitten, afford the belt matreffes to lay under quilts, inftead of ifraw, as being very foft, and continuing fweet for (even years. When chewed, they are held good for the gums and teeth. The ftagnant water gathered on the hollow of the beech-tree, is faid to cure tetter-fcabs and fcurfs in man and bcaft, by fo- mentation. Ruff. Dicf. T. 1. BEEcn-galls, in natural hiftory, the name of a fpecies of galls or protuberances found on the beech-tree, and ferving for the lodg- ment of infecls. See Galls.

Thefe galls are found on the leaves of the beechj and are fome- times only one upon a leaf, fometimes more ; tho' feldom more than three or four are found upon the fame leaf, and thefe always growing from the fame point, owing, no doubt, to the fly's having laid fo many eggs in the fame fpot. Thefe galls are of an oblong figure, and fomewhat flatted. They refemble the done of a plum in fhape, and are fo hard, that they are not to be broken between the fingers : their fiuV fiance feems of the fame nature with that of a nut-fhell. In each gall there is only one cavity, which is inhabited by a white worm, which, in time, paffes through the nymph (late into that of the fly, to which it owed its origin. BEECH-maJl, the fruit of the beech-tree. It fattens hogs anil deer, and has fometimes fupplied men inftead of bread. Chios is faid to have endured a memorable fiege by means of it. 4 O BEELE,