120 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



consistent account of the inhabitants of the hive than they 

 have done. Indeed had their discoveries borne any pro- 

 portion to the long tract of time asserted to Ijave been 

 employed by some in the study of these insects, they 

 ought to have rivalled, and even exceeded, those of the 

 Reaumurs and Hubers of our own age. 



Numerous, and wonderful for their absurdity, were 

 the errors and fables which many of the ancients adopt- 

 ed and circulated with respect to the generation and 

 propagation of these busy insects. For instance, — that 

 they were sometimes produced from the putrid bodies 

 of oxen and lions ; the kings and leaders from the brain, 

 and the vulgar herd from the flesh — a fable derived pro- 

 bably from swarms of bees having been observed, as in 

 the case of Samson ^, to take possession of the dried car- 

 cases of these animals, or perhaps from the myriads of 

 flies (for the vulgar do not readily distinguish flies from 

 bees) often generated in their putrescent flesh. They 

 adopted another notion equally absurd ; that these in- 

 sects collect their young progeny from the blossoms and 

 foliage of certain plants. Amongst others, the Cerin- 

 thus, the reed, and the olive-tree, had this viitue of ge- 

 nerating infant bees attributed to them"^. These speci- 

 mens of ancient credulity will suffice. 



But do not think that all the ancients imbibed such 

 monstrous opinions. Aristotle's sentiments seem to have 

 been much more correct, and not very wide of what 

 some of our best modern apiarists have advanced. Ac- 

 cording to him, the kings (so he denominates the queen- 

 bee) generate both kings and workers ; and the latter 



' Judges xiv. 8, 9. '' See Aristot. Hist. An'mal. 1. v. c. 22. 



Virgil. Gcorgic. 1. iy. ; and MouflFet, 12 — . 



