HIVE-BEES. 79 



till 1712, when glass hives were invented by Maraldi, a 

 mathematician of Nice, that what we may call the in-door 

 proceedings of bees could be observed. This important 

 invention was soon afterwai'ds taken advantage of by 

 M. Eeanmnr, who laid the foundation of the more recent 

 discoveries of John Hunter, Schirach, and the Hubers. 

 The admirable architecture which bees exhibit in their 

 miniature cities has, by these and other naturalists, been 

 investigated with great care and accuracy. We shall 

 endeavour to give as full an account of the wonderful 

 structures as our limits will allow. In this we shall chiefly 

 follow M. Huber, the elder, whose researches appear almost 

 miraculous when we consider that he was blind. 



At the early age of seventeen this remarkable man lost 

 his sight by gutta serena, the " drop serene " of our own 

 Milton. But though cut off from the sight of Nature's 

 works, he dedicated himself to their study. He saw them 

 through the eyes of the admirable woman whom he married ; 

 his philosophical reasonings pointed out to her all that he 

 wanted to ascertain ; and as she reported to him from time 

 to time the results of his ingenious experiments, he was 

 enabled to complete, by diligent investigation, one of the 

 most accurate and satisfactory accounts of the habits of bees 

 which have ever been produced. 



It had long been known that the bees of a hive consist of 

 three sorts, which was ascertained by M. Eeaumur to be 

 distinguished as workers or neuters, constituting the bulk 

 of the population ; drones or males, the least numerous class ; 

 and a single female, the queen and mother of the colony. 

 Schirach subsequently discovered the very extraordinary 

 fact, which Huber and others have proved beyond doubt, 

 that when a hive is accidentally deprived of a queen, the 

 grub of a worker can be and is fed in a particular manner 

 so as to became a queen and supply the loss.* But another 

 discovery of M. Huber is of more importance to the subject 



* It is right to remark that Huish aud others have suggested that 

 tlie grubs thus royalized may originally be misplaced queens ; yet this 

 admission is not necessary, since Madlle. Jmine has proved, by dissec- 

 tion, the workers to be imperfect females. 



