114 IXSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



gated cells, that tliey may become fit for receiving the eggs 

 which the queen is about to deposit, and in this manner they 

 re-establish the regular distance.* 



We are indebted to the late Dr. Barclay of Edinburgh, 

 well known as an excellent anatomist, for the discovery 

 that each cell in a honeycomb is not simply composed of 

 one wall, but consists of two. We shall give the account 

 of his discovery in his own words : — 



" Having inquired of several naturalists whether or not 

 they knew any author who had mentioned that the par- 

 titions between the cells of the honeycomb were double, 

 and whether or not they had ever remarked such a struc- 

 ture themselves, and they having answered in the nega- 

 tive, I now take the liberty of presenting to the Society 

 pieces of honeycomb, in which the young bees had been 

 reared, upon breaking which, it will be clearly seen that 

 the partitions between different cells, at the sides and the 

 base, are all douhle ; or, in other words, that each cell is a 

 distinct, separate, and in some measure an independent 

 structure, agglutinated only to the neighbouring cells ; and 

 that when the agglutinating substance is destoyed, each cell 

 may be entirely separated from the rest. 



"I have also some specimens of the cells formed by 

 wasps, which show that the partitions between them are 

 also double, and that the agglutinating substance between 

 them is more easily destroyed than that between the cells 

 of the bee."f 



Irregularities in their Workmanship. 

 Though bees, however, work with great uniformity when 

 circumstances ftivour their operations, they may be com- 

 pelled to vary their proceedings. M. Huber, made several 

 ingenious experiments of this kind. The following, men- 

 tioned by Dr. Bevan, was accidental, and occurred to his 

 friend Mr. Walond. " Inspecting his bee-boxes at the end 

 of October, 1817, he perceived that a centre comb, burthened 

 with honey, had separated from its attachments, and was 



* Huber on Bees, p. 220. 



t Memoirs of the Wernerian Xut. Hist. Soc. vol. ii. p. 2G0. 



