[186]Albert Magnus says that swallows _can_ be tamed. [187]The trunk of the gnat, Cuvier says, contains five silken and pointed threads, which together have the effect of a sting. [188]They respire by orifices in the sides of the body, known to naturalists as _stigmata_. The whole body, Cuvier says, forms in a measure, a system of lungs. [189]The various noises made by insects are in reality not the voice, as they are not produced by air passing through a larynx. [190]They have a nourishing fluid, which is of a white color, and acts in place of blood. [191]All insects have a brain, a sort of spinal marrow, and nerves; they have no fat except when in the chrysalis state; but they have a fibrous flesh of a whitish color. They have also viscera, trachea, nerves, and a most complicated organization. [192]Cuvier says that the three kinds of cells are absolutely necessary, and that they do not depend on the greater or less abundance. The _king_ of the ancients is what we know as the _queen_ bee. [193]They do not work, but are the males of the hive. [194]The queen has a sting, like the working bees, but uses it less frequently. [195]The true version is, that after killing the insect they bury it with their eggs as food for their future young. [196]Cuvier says that some have been known nearly a foot long, but not more. [197]Julius Obsequens speaks of a pestilence there, created by the dead bodies of the locusts, which caused the death of 8000 persons. [198]It is in reality their larvæ that they thus bring out to dry. The working ants, or neutrals, are the ones on which these labors devolve; the males and females are winged, the working ants are without wings. [199]By this is probably meant the Canis corsac, the small fox of India, by some mistake represented by travellers as an ant. [200]This vase of Semiramis was her drinking bowl, in much the same sense that the great cannon at Dover was Queen Elizabeth’s “pocket pistol.” [201]The specific gravity of lead is 11.352, and of silver only 10.474. [202]From the words µετ’ αλλα[**diacrit?], “one after another.” [203]By public enactment probably; samples of the false denarius being sold for the purpose of showing the difference between it and the genuine coin. [204]The first person mentioned in Roman history as having the cognomen “Dives,” is Publius Licinius Crassus. As he attained the highest honors of the state, and died universally respected, he cannot be the person so opprobriously spoken of by Pliny. [205]Who cut off his head after his death, and poured molten gold down his throat.