194 REV. H. E. PEEL — BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



in the larger angles, and two minutes more in the smaller, than 

 Maraldi had found his original measurement of the plates to be. 

 E-eaumur thought that the bee had come quite near enough in the 

 solution of the mathematical problem, and mathematicians generally 

 were delighted with the result of the investigation. Maclaurin, 

 however, a well-known Scotch mathematician, was not so easily 

 satisfied. The two results very nearly tallied with each other, but 

 not quite, and he felt that in a mathematical question precision was 

 a necessity. He tried the whole question himself, and found that 

 Maraldi's measurements of the lozenge- shaped plates were quite 

 correct, 109° 28' for large angles, and 70° 32' for smaller angles. 

 He then set to work upon the problem which Reaumur had given 

 to Koenig, and found to his great delight that Koenig must have 

 been wrong, as the true theoretical angles were 109° 28' and 70° 

 32', precisely corresponding with the actual measurements of the 

 bee cell. Another question now arose — how could this good man 

 have gone wrong — how could so excellent a mathematician as 

 Koenig have made so great a mistake ? Bad workers generally 

 complain of their tools without reason, but here was a case in 

 which a good workman had to complain of his tools with reason. 

 On investigation it was found that no blame attached to Koenig 

 himself, but that there was an error in the book of logarithms 

 "which he had used. So a mistake in a mathematical work was 

 corrected by a little honey-bee working out its cell ; and as captains 

 of ships would have gone on calculating their longitudes by these 

 same faulty tables of logarithms, if the mistake had not been dis- 

 covered, the bee may be said to have saved the life of many a 

 gallant ship, and perhaps the life of many a gallant seaman. 



But we must spend no more time on the habitation of the bee. 

 She uses the cells of the comb, thus fearfully and wonderfully made, 

 as the cradles for the grubs developed from the eggs which the 

 queen lays in them, and for the storage of honey and pollen. The 

 honey is intended (1) for the feeding of the queen, who takes her 

 food from the mouths of the attendants that are always waiting 

 upon her, never turning their tails, in order that they may be ready 

 to satisfy the wants of their mother ; (2) for the feeding of those 

 bees who are working at home ; (3) for the feeding of the young 

 brood ; (4) for the use of the family during the winter until the 

 spring brings the flowers again. It has been said that some English 

 bees transported to countries near the Equator, where there is a 

 perpetual summer, found out after a year or two that there was no 

 winter to be provided for, and so gave up storing honey and making 

 any provision for it. The pollen is used, as you have heard, for 

 feeding the grub and the young bees. In collecting the pollen the 

 bees afford another and a most striking proof of the marvellous 

 adaptation of one portion of creation to another. It is not my 

 business to-night to discuss the question of primary or secondary 

 laws. Any one who has read Mr. Charles Darwin's most interesting 

 work upon the various contrivances by which British and foreign 

 orchids are fertilised by insects, will remember his conviction — a 



