480 Transactions. — Zoology 



whole work. So completely do I disagree with the theory 

 as explaining the origin of species, so certain am I that 

 there is another force, energy, or intelligence in nature far 

 superior to it (which I have named "a common vital 

 force") — an intelligence that acts equally upon all living 

 things throughout the whole universe we see around us — that 

 I have determined to pin Darwin down to his own words in 

 regard to this one matter of the cell-making instinct of bees, 

 and to show, to the best of my ability, how the theory of natural 

 selection fails to explain anything at all regarding bee-life — • 

 why it should, in some respects, resemble the busy life of a 

 human community, or this wonderful specimen of what is 

 called "instinct" in the construction of honeycomb. Often- 

 times have my friends said to me, "Look how well Darwin 

 explains his principle of evolution by natural selection in 

 the superiority of the hive-bee cell to that of the humble- 

 bee ! " I propose now to ask members whether he tells us 

 anything at all in this one special matter. 



The following is Darwin's conclusion to his section 

 (cap. viii., p. 227, " Origin of Species"): "Thus, I believe, 

 the most wonderful of all known instincts, that of the hive-bee, 

 can be explained by natural selection having taken adviintage 

 of numerous, successive, slight modifications of simpler in- 

 stincts ; natural selection having by slow degrees more and 

 more perfectly led the bees to sweep equal spheres at a given 

 distance from each other in a double layer, and to build up 

 and excavate the wax along the planes of iiitersection ; the 

 bees, of course, no more knowing that they sivept their spheres 

 at one 2^'^^Ti'i<^ular distance from each other than they knoiv 

 tvhat are the several angles of the hexagonal j^fisnis and of 

 the basal rhovibic plates ; the motive-power of the process of 

 natural selection having been the construction of cells of due 

 strength and of the proper size and shape for the larvae, this 

 being effected with the greatest possible economy of labour 

 and wax; that individual swarm which thus made the best 

 cells with least labour, and least waste of honey in the secre- 

 tion of wax, having succeeded best, and having transmitted 

 their newly-acquired economical instincts to new swarms, 

 which in their turn will have had the best chance of succeed- 

 ing in the struggle for existence." 



Nothing can be plainer or more emphatic than these words 

 as explaining the theory of natural selection. I have italicised 

 certain words in order not only to show how mistaken this 

 conclusion was, but also to emphasize the existence of this con- 

 stant guiding vital intelligence, of which Darwin took no ac- 

 count. There is no reference to the words, " vital intelligence 

 or force " in Darwin's index. It is of no moment whether he 

 himself compiled the index or the index was compiled for him : 



