The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700

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Charles Butler (1560 - 29 Mar 1647)

Minister, logician, grammarian, author, priest, and apiarist. In The Feminine Monarchie (1623 and 1634), he expresses his theory on the government of bees.

Dictionary of National Biography entry: https://doi-org.cyber.usask.ca/10.1093/ref:odnb/4178 Other biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Butler_(beekeeper) References in Documents:
Grew, Musaeum Regalis (1685)

The under or hinder Wings of a Bee, are the least; that they may not incommode his flight. (a) (a) Mouf. de Insect. cap. 1. The Honey-Bag, is the Stomach, which they always fill to satisfie, and to spare; vomiting up the greater part of the Honey, to be kept against Winter. A curious Description and Figure of the Sting, see in Mr. Hook's Micrography. In windy Weather, Bees often hold a little stone in their hinder Feet; which serves as a Ballast to make them sail through the Air more steadily. (b) (b) Ibid. The History of Bees, the best that Aristotle hath given us, (c) (c) Hist. An. lib. 9. c. 40. of any one Animal. Of their Polity, Generation, Conservation, Diseases, and Use; see also Moufet, Butler, and a late Treatise of Mr. Rusden. All that Authors speak of the Spontaneous Generation of Bees, is fabulous. The ashes of Bees are put into most Compositions for breeding of Hair.