Economy of Been. 331 



bodies, though aware how liable I was to be deceived by the almost irre- 

 sistible association of light and heat in the mind. A very large one ulti- 

 mately convinced me I was not deceived, the sensation being on this occa- 

 sion perfectly distinct, grateful, and continuing for a minute or two after 

 the touch. 



The masses of marine ovula, left by the tide to heat and hatch on the 

 beach, I had long before observed during the whole process of vivification. 

 First, a transparent mass of jelly, — next marked by a white opaque speck, a 

 little distance from the centre,— third, this spot fringed with a red border, 

 of the colour of arterial blood, — next, a kind of irregular pulsation, accom- 

 panied by the developement of certain white contractile fibres, and the 

 extension of several large red lines in radial directions from the focal opaque 

 speck. The appearance of a black speck, ultimately a defined head, — and 

 finally, I have seen the rising tide shake out from the mass the perfect 

 animal, apparently in the full possession of life ; certainly exercising the 

 important function of apprehension of danger. 



The identity of this ovulum, with the luminous bodies I encountered in 

 the water, appeared probable from their size, consistency, and abounding 

 in the same regions. It was soon after ascertained ; for on a night when 

 the sea was somewhat agitated, I observed the same coruscations in the 

 waves, breaking on the beach, and succeeded in obtaining several of the 

 illuminating bodies by the light of their own flashes. They appeared, as 

 I expected, identical. 



When examined by candle to overcome the glare of their brilliancy, and 

 at the same time observe their action more clearly, the power of illumina- 

 tion appeared to reside in a similar focal point to that described as the 

 place of the first phenomena of vivification ; and the flashes, which could 

 be procured by irritating the mass with the end of a pencil, diverged from 

 this point in lines, similar in magnitude and direction to the large red 

 ones mentioned in that process. I regret that it did not occur to me to 

 electrically insulate one of these bodies, and endeavour to obtain shocks ; 

 but I was too much occupied with the question above stated, to avail myself 

 of the means in my hands, of making some interesting experiments on the 

 theory of life. — From the Transactions of the Albany Institute, vol. i. 

 No. 1. 



4. Circumstances relative to the Economy of Bees. By T. A. Knight, Esq. 



In a former paper the author stated his having observed that, several 

 days previous to the settling of a swarm of bees in the cavity of a hollow 

 tree adapted to their reception, a considerable number of those insects were 

 incessantly employed in examining the state of the tree, and particularly 

 of every dead knot above the cavity which appeared likely to admit water. 

 He has since had an opportunity of noticing, that the bees who performed 

 this task of inspection, instead of being the same individuals, as he had 

 formerly imagined, were, in fact, a continual succession of different bees : 

 the whole number in the course of three days being such as to warrant 

 the inference, that not a single labouring bee ever emigrates in a swarm 

 without having seen its proposed future habitation. He finds that the 



