16 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. . 



for the above facts, has by an ingenious study of the cells of bees shown, 

 first, that, a cell of this perfection is rarely if ever attained. Further- 

 more, that, while the honey-cells " are built unequivocally in accord- 

 ance with the hexagonal type, they exhibit a range of variation which 

 almost defies description ; " that the worker-bees, from incorrect 

 alignment and other causes, build cells, the measurement of which 

 shows the widest limit of variation ; that the drone-cells are liable 

 to substantially the same variations, while the transition-cells, namely, 

 those in which drones and worker-cells are combined in the same 

 piece of comb, are extremely irregular. As the drone-cells are one- 

 fifth larger than worker-cells, " a transition cannot be made without 

 some disturbance in the regularity of the structure." And Prof. 

 Wyinan states distinctly that the bees do not have any systematic 

 method of making the change, adding that " the cell of the bee 

 has not that strict conformity to geometrical accuracy claimed for 

 it," and the assertion, like that of Lord Brougham, that there is in the 

 cell of the bee " perfect agreement between theory and observation, 

 in view of the analogies of Nature, is far more likely to be wrong 

 than right, and his assertion in the case before us is certainly wrong." 

 Prof. AYyman closes his essay by saying that " much error would 

 have been avoided if those who have discussed the structure of the 

 bee's cell had adopted the plan followed by Mr. Darwin, and studied 

 the habits of the cell-making insects comparatively, beginning with 

 the cells of the humble-bee, following with those of the wasps and 

 hornets, then with those of the Mexican bees, and finally with those 

 of the common hive-bee ; in this way they would have found that, 

 while there is a constant approach to the perfect form, they would at 

 the same time have been prepared for the fact that even in the cell of 

 the hive-bee perfection is not reached. The isolated study of any- 

 thing in Nature is a fruitful source of error." 



The remarkable ingenuity, so characteristic of Prof. Wyman's ex- 

 periments, is fully shown in this memoir. He made plaster-casts of 

 the comb, and then sawed transverse sections, and by slightly heat- 

 ing the plaster the wax was melted and absorbed, leaving the deli- 

 cate interspaces representing the partitions. From these sections 

 electrotypes were taken, and thus the veritable figures were used to 

 illustrate the absolute structure of the comb. The results of these 

 brilliant researches were published in the " Proceedings of the Amer- 

 ican Academy of Sciences." 



\To be continued.] 



