Part 2

On a journey a Bedouin invariably carries with him a light, sharp-pointed lance, the stem of which is made of Persian or African cane; the manner in which this is carried or trailed often indicates the tribe of the owner. The lance is the favourite and characteristic weapon of the Arab nomad, and the one in the use of which he shows the greatest skill. An antiquated sword, an out-of-date musket, an ornamented dagger or knife, a coat of mail, the manufacture of Yemen or Bagdad, and a helmet, a mere iron head-piece, without visor or crest, complete his military outfit.

A Bedouin's tent consists of a few coverings of the coarsest goat-hair, dyed black, and spread over two or more small poles, in height from 8 to 9 ft., gipsy fashion. If it be the tent of a sheik, its total length may be from 30 to 40 ft.; if of an ordinary person, less than 20 ft. Sometimes a partition separates the quarters of the women and children; sometimes they are housed under a lower and narrower covering. A rough carpet or mat is spread on the ground; while camel-saddles, ropes, halters, two or three cooking pots, one or two platters, a wooden drinking bowl, the master's arms at one side of the tent, and his spear stuck in the ground at the door, complete the list of household valuables. On striking camp all these are fastened on the backs of camels; the men mount their saddles, the women their litters; and in an hour the blackened stones that served for a cooking hearth are the only sign of the encampment. For food the Bedouin relies on his herds, but rice, vegetables, honey, locusts and even lizards are at times eaten.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, _Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabis_ (1831); Karstens Niebuhr, _Travels through Arabia_ (orig. Germ. edit. 1772), translated into English by Robert Heron (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1792); H.H. Tessup, _Women of the Arabs_ (New York, 1874); W.S. Blunt, _Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates_ (1879); Lady Anne Blunt, _Pilgrimage to Neid_ (1881); Desmoulins, _Les Francais d'aujourd'hui_ (Paris, 1898); C.M. Doughty, _Arabia Deserta_ (2 vols., 1888); E. Reclus, _Les Arabes_ (Brussels, 1898); Rev. S.M. Zwemer, _Arabia, the Cradle of Islam_ (1900); W. Robertson Smith, _Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia_ (Cambridge, 1885); H.C. Trumbull, _The Blood Covenant_ (Philadelphia, 1891).

BEDSORE, a form of ulceration or sloughing, occasioned in people who, through sickness or old age, are confined to bed, resulting from pressure or the irritation of sweat and dirt. Bedsores usually occur when there is a low condition of nutrition of the tissues. The more helpless the patient the more liable he is to bedsores, and especially when he is paralysed, delirious or insane, or when suffering from one of the acute specific fevers. They may occur wherever there is a pressure, more especially when any moisture is allowed to remain on the bedding; and thus lack of cleanliness is an important factor in the production of this condition. In large hospitals a bedsore is now a great rarity, and this, considering the helplessness of many of the patients treated, shows what good nursing can do. The bed must be made with a firm smooth mattress; the undersheet and blanket must be changed whenever they become soiled; the drawsheet is spread without creases, and changed the moment it becomes soiled. Preventive treatment must be followed from the first day of the illness. This consists in the most minute attention to cleanliness, and constant variation in the position of the patient. All parts subjected to pressure or friction must be frequently washed with soap and hot water, then thoroughly dried with a warm soft towel. The part should next be bathed in a solution of corrosive sublimate in spirits of wine, and finally dusted with an oxide of zinc and starch powder. This routine should be gone through not less than four times in the twenty-four hours in any case of prolonged illness. The pressure may be relieved over bony prominences by a water-pillow or by a piece of thick felt cut into a ring. Signs of impending bedsores must constantly be watched for. Where one threatens, the skin loses its proper colour, becoming either a deadly white or a dusky red, and the redness does not disappear on pressure. The surrounding tissues become oedematous, and pain is often severe, except in a case of paralysis. As the condition progresses further the pain ceases. The epidermis now becomes raised as in a blister, and finally becomes detached, forming an excoriation and exposing the papillae. Even at this late stage an actual ulceration can still be prevented if proper care is taken; but failing this, the skin sloughs and an ulcer forms. In treating this, the position of the patient must be such that no pressure is ever allowed on the sloughing tissue. A hot boracic pad under oil-silk should be applied, the affected part being first dusted with iodoform. If, however, the slough is very large, it is safer to avoid wet applications, and the parts should be dusted with animal charcoal and iodoform, and protected with a dry dressing. When the slough has separated and the sore is clean, friar's balsam will hasten the healing process. In any serious illness the formation of a bedsore makes the prognosis far more grave, and may even bring about a fatal issue, either directly or indirectly.

BEDWORTH, a manufacturing town in the Nuneaton parliamentary division of Warwickshire, England; on the Nuneaton-Coventry branch of the London & North Western railway, 100 m. north-west from London. Pop. (1900) 7169. A tramway connects with Coventry, and the Coventry canal passes through. Coal and ironstone are mined; there are iron-works, and bricks, hats, ribbons and tape and silk are made. Similar industries are pursued in the populous district (including the villages of Exhall and Foleshill) which extends southward towards Coventry.

BEE (Sanskrit _bha_, A S. _beo_, Lat. _apis_), a large and natural family of the zoological order _Hymenoptera_, characterized by the plumose form of many of their hairs, by the large size of the basal segment of the foot, which is always elongate and in the hindmost limb sometimes as broad as the shin, and by the development of a "tongue" for sucking liquid food; this organ has been variously interpreted as the true insectan tongue (hypo-pharynx) or as a ligula formed by fused portions of the second maxillae (probably the latter).

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Honeybee (_Apis mellifica_). a, male (drone); b, queen, c, worker.

(After Benton, _Bull._ 1 (n.s.) _Div. Ent._, U.S. Dept. Agr.).]

Bees are specialized in correspondence with the flowers from which they draw the bulk of their food supply, the flexible tongue being used for sucking nectar, the plumed hairs and the modified legs (fig. 7) for gathering pollen. These floral products which form the food of bees and of their larvae, are in most cases collected and stored by the industrious insects; but some genera of bees act as inquilines or "cuckoo-parasites," laying their eggs in the nests of other bees, so that their larvae may feed at the expense of the rightful owners of the nest. In a few cases, the parasitic bee-grub devours not only the food-supply, but also the larva of its host.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Head and Appendages of Honey-bee (Apis),

a, Antenna or feeler. g, Epipharynx. mxp, Maxillary palp. pg, Opposite to galeae of 2nd maxillae (labium). mx, 1st maxilla. lp, Labial palp. l, Ligula or "tongue." b, Bouton or spoon of the ligula.

(From Frank R. Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping_.) ]

_Solitary and Social Bees._--Many genera of bees are represented, like most other insects, by ordinary males and females, each female constructing a nest formed of several chambers ("cells") and storing in each chamber a supply of food for the grub to be hatched from the egg that she lays therein. Such bees, although a number of individuals often make their nests close together, are termed "solitary," their communities differing in nature from those of the "social" bees, among which there are two kinds of females--the normal fertile females or "queens," and those specially modified females with undeveloped ovaries (see fig. 6) that are called "workers" (fig. 1). The workers are the earliest developed offspring of the queen, and it is their associated work which renders possible the rise of an insect state--a state which evidently has its origin in the family. It is interesting to trace various stages in the elaboration of the bee-society. Among the humble-bees (_Bombus_) the workers help the queen, who takes her share in the duties of the nest; the distinction between queen and workers is therefore less absolute than in the hive-bees (_Apis_), whose queen, relieved of all nursing and building cares by the workers, devotes her whole energies to egg-laying. The division of labour among the two castes of female becomes therefore most complete in the most highly organized society.

_Structure._--Details of the structure of bees are given in the article HYMENOPTERA. The feelers (fig. 2, a) are divided into "scape" and "flagellum" as in the ants, and the mandibles vary greatly in size and sharpness in different genera. The proboscis or "tongue" (fig. 2, l) is a hollow organ enclosing an outgrowth of the body-cavity which is filled with fluid, and with its flexible under-surface capable of invagination or protrusion. Along this surface stretches a groove which is surrounded by thickened cuticle and practically formed into a tube by numerous fine hairs. Along this channel the nectar is drawn into the pharynx and passes, mixed with saliva, into the crop or "honey-bag"; the action of the saliva changes the saccharose into dextrose and levulose, and the nectar becomes honey, which the bee regurgitates for storage in the cells or for the feeding of the grubs. The sting (fig. 6, pg, st.) of female bees is usually highly specialized, but in a few genera it is reduced and useless.

Many modifications in details of structure may be observed within the family. The tongue is bifid at the tip in a few genera; usually it is pointed and varies greatly in length, being comparatively short in _Andrena_, long in the humble-bees (_Bombus_), and longest in _Euglossa_, a tropical American genus of solitary bees. The legs, which are so highly modified as pollen-carriers in the higher bees, are comparatively simple in certain primitive genera. The hairy covering, so notable in the hive-bee and especially in humble-bees, is greatly reduced among bees that follow a parasitic mode of life.

[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Larva and Pupa of Apis.

SL, Spinning larva. N, Pupa. FL, Feeding larva. co, Cocoon. sp, Spiracles. t, "Tongue." m, Mandible. an, Antenna w, Wing. ce, Compound Eye. e, Excrement. ex, Exuvium.

(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping_.)]

_Early stages._--As is usual where an abundant food supply is provided for the young insects, the larvae of bees (fig. 3, SL.) are degraded maggots; they have no legs, but possess fairly well-developed heads. The successive cuticles that are cast as growth proceeds are delicate in texture and sometimes separate from the underlying cuticle without being stripped off. The maggots may pass no excrement from the intestine until they have eaten all their store of food. When fully grown the final larval cuticle is shed, and the "free" pupa (fig. 3, N) revealed. The larvae of some bees spin cocoons (fig. 3, _co_) before pupation.

_Nests of Solitary Bees._--Bees of different genera vary considerably in the site and arrangement of their nests. Many--like the common "solitary" bees _Halictus_ and _Andrena_--burrow in the ground; the holes of species of _Andrena_ are commonly seen in springtime opening on sandy banks, grassy lawns or gravel paths. Our knowledge of such bees is due to the observations of F. Smith, H. Friese, C. Verhoeff and others. The nest may be simple, or, more frequently, a complex excavation, cells opening off from the entrance or from a main passage. Sometimes the passage is the conjoint work of many bees whose cells are grouped along it at convenient distances apart. Other bees, the species of _Osmia_ for example, choose the hollow stem of a bramble or other shrub, the female forming a linear series of cells in each of which an egg is laid and a supply of food stored up. J.H. Fabre has found that in the nests of some species of _Osmia_ the young bee developed in the first-formed cell, if (as often happens) she emerges from her cocoon before the inmates of the later cells, will try to work her way round these or to bite a lateral hole through the bramble shoot; should she fail to do this, she will wait for the emergence of her sisters and not make her escape at the price of injury to them. But when Fabre substituted dead individuals of her own species or live larvae of another genus, the _Osmia_ had no scruple in destroying them, so as to bite her way out to air and liberty.

The leaf-cutter bees (_Megachile_)--which differ from _Andrena_ and _Halictus_ and agree with _Osmia_, _Apis_ and _Bombus_ in having elongate tongues--cut neat circular disks from leaves, using them for lining the cells of their underground nests. The carpenter-bees (_Xylocopa_ and allied genera), unrepresented in the British Islands, though widely distributed in warmer countries, make their nests in dry wood. The habits of _X. violacea_, the commonest European species, were minutely described in the 18th century in one of R.A.F. de Reaumur's memoirs. This bee excavates several parallel galleries to which access is gained by a cylindrical hole. In the galleries are situated the cells, separated from one another by transverse partitions, which are formed of chips of wood, cemented by the saliva of the bee.

Among the solitary bees none has more remarkable nesting habits than the mason bee (_Chalicodoma_) represented in the south of France and described at length by Fabre. The female constructs on a stone a series of cells, built of cement, which she compounds of particles of earth, minute stones and her own saliva. Each cell is provided with a store of honey and pollen beside which an egg is laid; and after eight or nine cells have been successively built and stored, the whole is covered by a dome-like mass of cement. Fabre found that a _Chalicodoma_ removed to a distance of 4 kilometres from the nest that she was building, found her way back without difficulty to the exact spot. But if the nest were removed but a few yards from its former position, the bee seemed no longer able to recognize it, sometimes passing over it, or even into the unfinished cell, and then leaving it to visit again uselessly the place whence it had been moved. She would accept willingly, however, another nest placed in the exact spot where her own had been. If the unfinished cell in the old nest had been only just begun, while that in the substituted nest were nearly completed, the bee would add so much material as to make the cell much larger than the normal size, her instinct evidently being to do a certain amount of building work before filling the cell with food. The food, too, is always placed in the cell after a fixed routine--first honey disgorged from the mouth, then pollen brushed off the hairs beneath the body (fig. 7, c) after which the two substances are mixed into a paste.

_Inquilines and Parasites._--The working bees, such as have been mentioned, are victimized by bees of other genera, which throw upon the industrious the task of providing for the young of the idle. The nests of _Andrena_, for example, are haunted by the black and yellow species of _Nomada_, whose females lay their eggs in the food provided for the larva of the _Andrena_. According to H. Friese, the relations between the host and the inquiline are quite friendly, and the insects if they meet in the nest-galleries courteously get out of each other's way. D. Sharp, in commenting on this strange behaviour, points out that the host can have no idea why the inquiline haunts her nest. "Why then should the _Andrena_ feel alarm? If the species of _Nomada_ attack the species of _Andrena_ too much, it brings about the destruction of its own species more certainly than that of the _Andrena_."

More violent in its methods is the larva of a _Stelis_, whose operations in the nest of _Osmia leucomelana_ have been studied by Verhoeff. The female _Stelis_ lays her eggs earlier than the _Osmia_, and towards the bottom of the food-mass; the egg of the _Osmia_ is laid later, and on the surface of the food. Hence the two eggs are at opposite ends of the food, and both larvae feed for a time without conflict, but the _Stelis_, being the older, is the larger of the two. Finally the parasitic larva attacks the _Osmia_, and digging its mandibles into its victim's head kills and eats it, taking from one to two days for the completion of the repast.

[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Under Side of Worker, carrying Wax Scales.

(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping_.)]

_Social Bees._--The bees hitherto described are "solitary," all the individuals being either males or unmodified females. The most highly developed of the long-tongued bees are "social" species, in which the females are differentiated into egg-laying queens and (usually) infertile "workers" (fig. 6). Verhoeff has discussed the rise of the "social" from the "solitary" condition, and points out that for the formation of an insect community three conditions are necessary--a nest large enough for a number of individuals, a close grouping of the cells, and an association between mother and daughters in the winged state. For the fulfilment of this last condition, the older insects of the new generation must emerge from the cells while the mother is still occupied with the younger eggs or larvae. One species of _Halictus_ nearly reaches the desired stage; but the first young bees to appear in the perfect state are males, and when the females emerge the mother dies.

[Illustration: FIG. 5.-Abdominal Plate (worker of _Apis_), under side, third segment. W, wax-yielding surface, covering true gland; s, septem, or carina; wh, webbed hairs.

(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping_.)]

Among the social bees the mother and daughter-insects co-operate, and they differ from the "solitary" groups in the nature of their nest, the cells (fig. 25) of which are formed of wax secreted by special glands (fig. 5) in the bee's abdomen, the wax being pressed out between the segmental sclerites in the form of plates (fig. 4), which are worked by the legs (fig. 7) and jaws into the requisite shape. In our well-known hive-bee (_Apis_) and humble-bees (_Bombus_) the wax glands are ventral in position, but in the "stingless" bees of the tropics (_Trigona_ and _Melipona_) they are dorsal. A colony of humble-bees is started in spring by a female "queen" which has survived the winter. She starts her nest underground or in a surface depression, forming a number of waxen cells, roughly globular in shape and arranged irregularly. The young females ("workers") that develop from the eggs laid in these early cells assist the queen by building fresh cells and gathering food for storage therein. The queen may be altogether relieved of the work of the nest as the season advances, so that she can devote all her energies to egg-laying, and the colony grows rapidly. The distinction between queen and worker is not always clear among humble-bees, the female insects varying in size and in the development of their ovaries. If any mishap befall the queen, the workers can sometimes keep the community from dying out. In autumn males are produced, as well as young queens. The community is broken up on the approach of winter, the males and workers perish, and the young queens after hibernation start fresh nests in the succeeding year.

[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Ovaries of Queen and Workers (_Apis_).

A, Abdomen of queen, under side. P, Petiole. o, o, Ovaries. hs, Position filled by honey-sack. ds, Position through which digestive system passes. od, Oviduct. co.d, Vagina. E, Egg-passing oviduct. s, Spermatheca. i. Intestine. pb, Poison bag. pg, Poison gland. st, Sting. p, "Palps" or "feelers" of sting. B, Rudimentary ovaries of ordinary worker. sp, Rudimentary spermatheca. C, Partially developed ovaries of fertile worker. sp, Rudimentary spermatheca.

(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping_.)]

The appearance of the heavy-bodied hairy _Bombi_ is well known. They are closely "mimicked" by bees of the genus _Psithyrus_, which often share their nests. These _Psithyri_ have no pollen-carrying structures on the legs and their grubs are dependent for their food-supply on the labours of the _Bombi_, though, according to E. Hoffer's observations, it seems that the female _Psithyrus_ builds her own cells. The colonies of _Bombus_ illustrate the rise of the inquiline habit. Many of the species are very variable and have been differentiated into races or varieties. F.W.L. Sladen states that a queen belonging to the _virginalis_ form of _Bombus terrestris_ often invades a nest belonging to the _lucorum_ form, kills the rightful queen, and takes possession of the nest, getting the _lucorum_ workers to rear her young. In the nests of _Bombi_ are found various beetle larvae that live as inquilines or parasites, and also maggots of drone-flies (_Volucella_), which act as scavengers; the Volucella-fly is usually a "mimic" of the _Bombus_, whose nest she invades.

The "stingless" bees (_Trigona_) of the tropics have the parts of the sting reduced and useless for piercing. As though to compensate for the loss of this means of defence, the mandibles are very powerful, and some of the bees construct tubular entrances to the nest with a series of constrictions easy to hold against an enemy. The habits of the Brazilian species of these bees have been described in detail by H. von Jhering, who points out that their wax glands are dorsal in position, not ventral as in _Bombus_ and _Apis_.

With _Apis_, the genus of the hive-bee, we come to the most highly-specialized members of the family--better known, perhaps than any other insects, on account of the long domestication of many of the species or races. In _Apis_ the workers differ structurally from the queen, who neither builds cells, gathers food, nor tends brood, and is therefore without the special organs adapted for those functions which are possessed in perfection by the workers. The differentiation of queen and workers is correlated with the habit of storing food supplies, and the consequent permanence of the community, which finds relief for its surplus population by sending off a swarm, consisting of a queen and a number of workers, so that the new community is already specialized both for reproduction and for labour.

[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Modifications in the Legs of Bees.

A. a-d, Hive-bee (_Apis_). B. f-g, Stingless bee (_Melipona_). C. h-i, Humble-bee (_Bombus_). a, f, h, Outer view of hind-leg. b, g, i, Inner view. d, Fore-leg of _Apis_ showing notch in tarsal segment for cleaning feeler. e, Tip of intermediate shin with spur. c, Feathered hairs with pollen grains, magnified.

(After Riley, _Insect Life_ (U.S. Dept. Agr.), vol. 6.)]