The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1888-08-08
DYES OF THE BEE.
STRUCTURES Whose Completely lii Dis.
fioult OF Comprehension.

.ut#fLE.fHtN N.Aa ttAIAANE HEG rrf
Any one who will take the trouble to
examine with a lens the head Of q bee
Will SEQ on either side the large round
ed compound eye, and on the forehead
or vertex three bright little simple eyes.
The latter are, as their name implies,
comparatively simple in structure, each
with a single lens. But the compound
eyes have q complex structure. Exter-
nally the surface is seen to be divided
up into a great number Of "hexagonal
areas, each Of which is called a facet,
and forms a little lens. or these the
queen bee has on each side nearly 5000
the worker some 5000 and the drone
upward of IL 1000. Beneath each facet,
Is a crystalline cone, r so.called nerve
rod. and other structures. too complex
to be here described. which pass inward
toward the brain. 1t will be seen, then
that the so called compound eye with
its thousands Of facets, its thousands Of
crystalline cones, Its thousands Of
nerve rods" and other elements is q
structure Of no little oomplexity. The
question now arises: Is it one struc-
ture Or many Is 1t an eye or All ag-
gregate OF eyes. To this question the
older %naturalists answered confidently
An aggregate. And a simple expert
ment seems to warrant this conclusion.
Puget quoted in Goldsmith's Gamma
ted Nature" adapted the facets OF the
eye Of q f--pardon me, fair reader, Of g
aphanipterous insect Of the genus Pu-
lex SO as to see objects through it
under the microscope. "a soldier who
WAS thus seen appeared like an army
Of pigmies, for while 1t multiplied it
also diminished the object; tho arch Of
q bridge exhibited n spectacle more
magnificent than human skill could
perform, and tue flame Of O candle
seemed the illumination Of thousands
Of lamps" Although Cheshire, in his
book on the bee, adopts this view and
supports it by reference to q similar ex-
pertinent, it numbers to-day but few
supporters. Ono is tempted to marvel
at the ability Of the drone to co-ordl-
nate $4,000 separate images into a sim
gle distinct object. Picture tic con-
fusion Of images OF one who had slipped
too freely Of the sweet but de-
luslve dregs Of the punch how'll Undor
similar circumstances human folks are
reported to see double. Think of the
appalling condition Of an inebriate
dronel Those who believe the facetted
eye to be n organ with many parts,
contend that each facet and Its UNDER
lying structures give, not q complete
image Of the external object as q whole
but the image Of a single point Of that
object. Thus there is formed, by the
ju~xtaposltion Of contiguous points a
stippled image or an image in mosaic.
Hence this view is known as Muller's
mosaic hypothesis. Lowne has expert
rnented with fine glass threads arrang-
cd like the cones and nerve rods Of the
bees eye, and finds that (even when
they are not surrounded by pigment,
as are the elements in al insects eye)
all Obllque rays are got rid Of Ivy nu-
merous reflections and the interference
due to the different lengths Of the rays.
Some modification Of the mosaic hy-
pothesis ID now generally adopted, and
DR.. Hlckson has recently worked ont
with great care the structure Of the
optic tract which lies between the
crystalline cones and the BRAIN.