ives, the insect proclaims the first. It says:

'My industry is not imposed upon me by the implement which I possess;
what I do is to use the implement, such as it is, for the talent with
which I am gifted.'

It says to us, in its own way:

'The function has determined the organ; vision is the reason of the
eye.'

In short, it repeats to us Virgil's profound reflection:

'Mens agitat molem'; 'Mind moves matter.'

CHAPTER 11. THE POISON OF THE BEE.

I have discussed elsewhere the stings administered by the Wasps to
their prey. Now chemistry comes and puts a spoke in the wheel of our
arguments, telling us that the poison of the Bees is not the same as
that of the Wasps. The Bees' is complex and formed of two elements, acid
and alkaline. The Wasps' possess only the acid element; and it is to
this very acidity and not to the 'so-called' skill of the operators that
the preservation of the provisions is due. (The author's numerous essays
on the Wasps will form the contents of later works. In the meantime, cf.
"Insect Life," by J.H. Fabre, translated by the author of "Mademoiselle
Mori": chapters 4 to 12, and 14 to 18; and "The Life and Love of the
Insect," by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos:
chapters 11, 12 and 17.--Translator's Note.)

Admitting that there is a difference in the nature of the venom, I fail
to see that this has any bearing on the problem in hand. I can inoculate
with various liquids--acids, weak nitric acid, alkalis, ammonia, neutral
bodies, spirits of wine, essence of turpentine--and obtain conditions
similar to those of the victims of the predatory insects, that is to
say, inertia with the persistence of a dull vitality betrayed by
the movements of the mouth-parts and antennae. I am not, of course,
invariably successful, for there is neither delicacy nor precision in
my poisoned needle and the wound which it makes does not bear comparison
with the tiny puncture of the unerring natural sting; but, after all,
it is repeated often enough to put the object of my experiment beyond
doubt. I should add that, to achieve success, we must have a subject
with a concentrated ganglionic column, such as the Weevil, the
Buprestis, the Dung-beetle and others. Paralysis is then obtained with
but a single prick, made at the point which the Cerceris has revealed
to us, the point at which the corselet joins the rest of the thorax. In
that case, the least possible quantity of the acrid