172 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



cells, if a greater number of bees were to build in a given 

 space than could admit of all the parallel tubes being 

 completed, tubes with flat sides and sharp angles might 

 result, and if the mutual pressure were exactly equal in 

 all directions, these sides and angles would assume the form 

 of hexagons. This hypothesis of Buffon was sustained by 

 such physical analogies as the blowing of a crowd of soap- 

 bubbles in a cup, the swelling of moistened peas in a con- 

 fined space, &c. The hypothesis, however, as thus pre- 

 sented was clearly inadequate ; for no reason is assigned 

 why the mutual pressure, even if conceded to exist, should 

 always be so exactly equal in all directions as to convert 

 all the cylinders into perfect hexagons even the ana- 

 logy of the soap-bubbles and the moistened peas failing, 

 as pointed out by Brougham and others, to sustain it, 

 seeing that as a matter of fact bubbles and peas under 

 circumstances of mutual pressure do not assume the form 

 of hexagons, but, on the contrary, forms which are con- 

 spicuously irregular. Moreover, the hypothesis fails to 

 account for the particular prismatic shape presented by 

 the cell base. Therefore it is not surprising that this 

 hypothesis should have gained but small acceptance. 

 Kirby and Spence dispose of it thus : ' He (Buffon) gravely 

 tells us that the boasted hexagonal cells of the bee are 

 produced by the reciprocal pressure of the cylindrical 

 bodies of these insects against each other ! ! ' l The 

 double note of admiration here may be taken to express 

 the feelings with which this hypothesis of Buffon was re- 

 garded by all the more sober-minded naturalists. Yet it 

 turns out to have been not very wide of the mark. As is 

 often the case with the gropings of a great mind, the idea 

 contains the true principle of the explanation, although it 

 fails as an explanation from not being in a position to 

 take sufficient cognizance of all the facts. Safer it is for 

 lesser minds to restrain their notes of exclamation while 

 considering the theories of a greater ; however crude or 

 absurd the latter may appear, the place of their birth 

 renders it not impossible that some day they may prove 

 to have been prophetic of truth revealed by fuller know* 



1 Int'fod. Ent , ii , p. 4fio. 



