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XII. On the Aqueous Vapour expelled from Bee-hives. By GEoncE Newport, 
Esq., F.R.S., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, &c. Communicated 
by the Secretary. 
Read March 3rd, 1846. 
THERE is one circumstance connected with the economy of the Bee-hive 
which does not appear to have engaged the attention of naturalists. It is the 
transpiration of vapour from the interior of the hive, at certain seasons, during 
the act of ventilation. «Every bee-keeper must have noticed that at the latter 
part of the summer there is often a deposit of blackish carbonaceous matter 
on the footstool of straw hives, which is extended a few inches from the 
entrance-hole. This deposit is accumulated there in the course of a few 
months. When it first attracted my attention, I supposed that it was occa- 
sioned by the bees alighting at that spot and accidentally shattering some of 
their loads of pollen; or that, perhaps, it might be rejected excrementitious 
. matter ; but I afterwards satisfied myself that it does not arise from either of 
these causes. The pollen conveyed by the bee is rarely or ever shattered in its 
transit, while the bees are always particularly careful to remove obnoxious 
materials from the interior of their dwelling or its immediate vicinity. Other 
circumstances have since led me to believe that it results from the accumula- 
tion of small quantities of wax that had adhered to the feet of the bees that 
have just left the combs and are passing outwards, and that its dark appear- 
ance may perhaps be due to the same cause as that which discolours the 
combs in the interior, and changes them in the course of a few months from 
a delicate yellow to a dark brown, and even to a blackish hue. 
When a hive is examined very early in the morning, at the end of summer, 
after a fine cool night, we usually observe at the entrance-hole a stream of 
moisture passing from it, sometimes in drops. This is more or less abundant 
at different periods according to the temperature of the preceding day, the 
activity of the bees, and the coolness of the night. "There seems reason to 
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