610 Generation of the Queen Bee, 



Although this theory found considerable support, and is, in 

 reality, verging nearer to the truth than any of the preceding ; 

 yet it was by no means considered sufficiently explicit. Pro- 

 fessor Hummel, in the Bihliothek der Wissenschqften [^Library 

 of Sciences]^ attacked it most violently, on the principle that it 

 was at variance with every analogy of nature, to invest an insect 

 with the power of altering the sexual character of an egg 

 after its deposition, and to impart to it a power which did 

 not belong to it in its original nature. The sequel will show 

 that on this argument of Professor Hummel's is founded one 

 of the chief objections to the hypothesis advanced by Huber, 

 advocated by his adherents, and echoed by the editor of the 

 volume of the Libraiy of Entertaini7ig Knowledge entitled In- 

 sect Architecture, that a common bee is possessed of the power 

 of generating a queen from a common egg. It is, however, 

 not the least interesting part of the study of the bee, that this 

 apparently insignificant insect has hitherto baffled all the re- 

 search and ingenuity of man to discover the manner of its 

 propagation : analogy presents no guide to the solution of 

 their secret ; and the result of every anatomical experiment 

 has tended rather to mystify the subject, than to conduct us 

 on the road to truth. 



The system of Heumann fell to the ground, upon the attack 

 of Hummel and others ; but another theorist immediately 

 rose up, in the person of the celebrated Strube, who, taking 

 advantage of the light thrown upon the natural economy of 

 the bee by his predecessors, considered that by the following 

 system he had reconciled all their contrarieties, and removed 

 all their obscurities : — 



Working Bees. Queen. 



'^ ^ 1 



Working Bees. 



Male. Female. 

 , h 



Imperfect mother drones. Perfect queens. 

 Drones. 



According to this system, the queen, *with a douhle-hranched 

 cmarium, lays male and female eggs ; and we cannot, in this 

 place, refrain expressing our surprise that Dr. Bevan, in his 

 Honey Bee, a work emanating from the HUberian school, 

 and compiled with the most marked partiality, should have 

 committed the egregious error of speaking of the ovaria of 

 the queen. Strube very justly designates it as a double- 

 branched ovarium : and if Dr. Bevan, in default of personal 

 anatomical researches, had consulted Swammerdam, he would 



