After enumerating
some probable and reasonable annoyances, such as prudent owners
would wish far removed from their bee-gardens, he adds
... aut ubi concava pulsu
Saxa sonant, vocisque offensa resultat image.
This wild and fanciful assertion will hardly be admitted by the
philosophers of these days; especially as they all now seem agreed
that insects are not furnished with any organs of hearing at all. But
if it should be urged, that though they cannot hear yet perhaps they
may feel the repercussion of sounds, I grant it is possible they may.
Yet that these impressions are distasteful or hurtful, I deny,
because bees, in good summers, thrive well in my outlet, where the
echoes are very strong: for this village is another Anathoth, a place
of responses or echoes. Besides, it does not appear from
experiment that bees are in any way capable of being affected by
sounds: for I have often tried my own with a large speaking-
trumpet held close to their hives, and with such an exertion of
voice as would have hailed a ship at the distance of a mile, and still
these insects pursued their various employments undisturbed, and
without showing the least sensibility or resentment.
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