HIVE-BEES. 



107 



of an irregular four-sided figure. This arrangement, by 

 bringing the greatest number of points in contact with the 

 interior surface, insures the stability of the comb. 



It may, however, be said not to be quite certain, that 

 Eeaumur and others have not ascribed to bees the merit 

 of ingenious mathematical contrivance and selection, when 

 the construction of the cells may more probably originate 

 in the form of their mandibles and the other instruments 

 employed in their operations. In the case of other insects, 

 we have, both in the preceding and subsequent pages of 

 this volume, repeatedly noticed, that they use their bodies, 

 or parts thereof, as the standards of measurement and 



Arrangement of Cells. 



modelling ; and it is not impossible that bees may proceed 

 on a similar principle. M. Huber replies to this objection, 

 that bees are not provided with instruments corresponding 

 to the angles of their cells ; for there is no more resem- 

 blance between these and the form of their mandibles, than 

 between the chisel of the sculptor and the work which he 

 produces. The head, he thinks, does not furnish any 

 better explanation. He admits that the antennae are very 

 flexible, so as to enable the insects to follow the outline of 

 every object ; but concludes that neither their structure, 

 nor that of the limbs and mandibles, are adequate to explain 

 the form of the cells, though all these are employed in the 

 operations of building, — the effect, according to him, de- 

 pending entirely on the object which the insect proposes. 



We shall now follow M. Huber in the experiments which 

 he contrived, in order to observe the operations of the bees 



