PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 363 



abundantly sufficient to establish the fact in question, we will now see 

 whether any satisfactory account can be given for such changes being pro- 

 duced by such causes, " It does not appear to me improbable," says 

 Bonnet, " that a certain kind of nutriment, and in more than usual abun- 

 dance, may cause a development in the grubs of bees of organs which would 

 never be developed without it. I can readily conceive, also, that a habita- 

 tion considerably more spacious, and differently placed, is absolutely ne- 

 cessary to the complete development of organs which the new nutriment 

 may cause to grow in all directions." ^ And again, with respect to the 

 wings of the queen-bee, which do not exceed those of the workers in 

 length, he thinks that this may arise from their being of a substance too stiff 

 to admit of their extension. Those parts and points that were in a state 

 to yield most easily to the action which this kind of nutriment produced 

 would be most prominent ; and the vertical position of the grub and pupa, 

 since nature does nothing in vain, may probably assist this action, and 

 render the parts of the animal more capable of such extension than if it 

 continued in a horizontal position. 



We know, with respect to the human species and the larger animals, that 

 numerous differences, both as to the form and relative proportion of parts, 

 occur continually. The cause of these differences we cannot always as- 

 certain ; yet in many instances they may either be derived from the nutri- 

 ment which the embryo receives in the womb, or from the greater or less 

 dimensions or higher or lower temperature of that organ — a case that 

 analogically would not be very wide of that of the grub or embryo of a 

 bee enclosed in a cell. Some of the differences in man I now allude to 

 may often be caused by a particular diet in childhood ; a warmer or a colder, 

 a looser or a tighter dress, or the like. Thus, for instance, the Egyptians, 

 who went bare headed, had their skulls remarkably thick ; wiiile the Per- 

 sians, who covered the head with a turban or mitre, were distinguished by 

 the tenuity of theirs. Again the inhabitants of certain districts are often 

 remarkable for peculiarities of form, which are evidently produced by local 

 circumstances. 



The following reasoning may not be inapplicable to the development or 

 non-development, according to tiieir food and habitation, of the ovaries 

 of these insects. An infant tightly swathed, as was formerly the custom, 

 in swaddling bands, without being allowed the free play of its little limbs, 

 fed with unwholesome food, or uncherished by genial warmth, may from 

 these circumstances have so imperfect a development of its organs as to 

 be in consequence devoted to sterility. When a cow brings forth two 

 calves, and one of them is a female, it is always barren, and partakes in 

 part of the characters of the other sex.'' In this instance, the space and 

 food that in ordinary cases are appropriated to one, are divided between 

 two ; so that a more contracted dwelling and a smaller share of nutriment 

 seem to prevent the development of the ovaries. 



The following observations, mostly taken from an essay of the cele- 

 brated anatomist John Hunter, in the P/iilo.soj)hical Transaclions, since 

 they are intimately connected vvitii tiie subject that we are now consider- 

 ing, will not be here misplaced. In animals just born or very young, there 

 are no peculiarities of shape, exclusive of the primary distinctions, by 



* Huber, ii. 445. 



' See J. Hunter's Treatise on certain Parts of the Animal (Economy. 



