Insect Architecture. SI 



the statement before us, in forming a clear and correct notion? 

 of the operations of this wonderful petticoat government {res- 

 publica gyncecocrdtica Linnaeus) of the hive. Unwilling as 

 we are to venture an opinion in opposition to that of so acute 

 an observer as Mr. Rennie, we cannot help thinking that he 

 has been misled by the great authority of Huber, in too 

 hastily concluding that wax is manufactured by the bees from 

 honey. Huber was an able and industrious naturalist ; but 

 all hi& experiments, we think, are not conclusive. Without 

 entering further into this obscure and much controverted 

 subject, we shall merely record our opinion, that wax is not 

 prepared from honey, as the Huberians maintain, but is fabri- 

 cated from pollen, by undergoing an elaborate process in the 

 second stomach of the bee ; but by what exact process, the 

 researches of naturalists have hitherto failed to discover. So, 

 at least, we have been taught to believe by experienced api- 

 arians. If this opinion be correct, it is to be regretted ihat 

 Mr, Rennie, too implicitly adhering to the dictum of an able 

 though fallible experimenter, should have been the means of 

 widely propagating an error on a practical point of natural 

 history ; and that, too, under the sanction of a Society for the 

 Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. 



We have scored our copy in innumerable places with notes 

 of admiration, for the purpose of marking passages for extrac- 

 tion ; but 6ur limits absolutely forbid us from tr^^nscribing any 

 thing like ^\\ of those ' wJiicK w^ hac^ singled put with that 

 view,ip3;'ogivihg,a,pl^ce to, mp|',^.:than.a.<yery small number of 

 the interesting ob&erVations* with wbioh. the^ work abounds. 

 Inde^(J;W^'hiaVe^^xtieri-encecl riiV ^Ikht' difficulty ltt'iiia,kirig a 

 selection ^ ^^^ We cannot fing:; ?paj:;p, thei;etq^:^,|vt.9..^P<y ^ny 

 thing (as !weii^qdul4 have wished to -have d^x\^\ mkAh& soaae- 

 what> obstjure^-su'bjecjtof gall-flies, treated on'ini th^'nftiet<ee}ith 

 chajTtter^'b^ td 'enter u^ort the rhucH;ep5^rt!)^^;^etf #e^i(!jfi' ^ 

 to the manner in which spiders shbot out their lines, and 

 transport! thertis^lves.throiighyitike! ainfronii one. place to an- 

 other. Amid the'variety of theories! whidh have been formed 

 on this subjefct, .we shall '^ontent.oiirs^lves with observing, 

 that to <us itih© opinionj adapted by ouif author appeals, to be the 

 corjrectioe©^ bdng'fthat which,isiiiistjbornd 6ut by actual expe- 

 rimeilt; friaiaelj^ th^t spiderfe> jjeqnaimf the aid of a current of 

 air in transpojtlrig themselves thirou^h^ the. atmosphere, and 

 that ^' in perfectly motionless air they hiave not the power of 

 darting tlieii thr^eads even, through the space of half an inch." 



We should be guilty of injustice towards the editors, were 

 we entirely to pass over in silence the numerous wood-cuts 

 with which, as already stated, the work is illustrated. It is 



E 2 



