OF ARTS AND SCIENCES : JANUARY 31, 1866. 83 



tallograpby, where the forms are essentially geometrical, we are told 

 that " natural crystals are always more or less distorted or imperfect," 

 and that " the science of crystallography could never have been devel- 

 oped from observation alone " ; # i. e. without recourse to ideal concep- 

 tions. An assertion, like that of Lord Brougham, that there is in the 

 cell or" 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. 

 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, begin- 

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

 and hornets, then with those of the Mexican bees (Melipona), and, final- 

 ly, with those of the common hive-bee. In this way, while they would 

 have found that 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 anything in natural history, is a fruitful source of error. 



Since bees give so much variety to the forms of their cells, and can 

 adapt them to peculiar circumstances, some of which do not occur in 

 nature, as, for example, in Huber's experiment with the glass surface, 

 which last they so persistently avoided, and in view of the fact, too, 

 that in meeting a given emergency they do not always adopt the same 

 method, one is driven to the conclusion that the instinct of one and the 

 same species either is not uniform in its action and is quite adaptive in 

 its quality, or to admit, with Reaumer, that bees work with a certain 

 degree of intelligence. 



Five hundred and sixty-first Meeting. 



January 31, 1866. — Statute Meeting. 



The President in the chair. 



The Corresponding Secretary read letters from Prof. Tayler 

 Lewis, Mr. L. M. Rutherfurd, Dr. J. W. Draper, Mr. G. W. 

 Hill, and M. Chasles, in acknowledgment of their election 

 into the Academy. 



The President read a letter from Mr. Richard Greenough, 

 presenting to the Academy a bust of Sir Charles Lyell. 



* Professor Cooke, Religion and Chemistry, p. 287. 



