\D4 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



rior current — a simple experiment will satisfy you that 

 this cannot be. Take a vessel of the size of a bee-hive, 

 with a similar or even somewhat larger aperture — in- 

 troduce a lighted taper, and if the temperature be 

 raised to more than 140", it will go out in a short 

 time. We must therefore admit, as Huber observes % 

 that the bees possess the astonishing faculty of attract- 

 ing the external air, and at the same time of expelling 

 that which has become corrupted by their respiration. 



What would you say, should I tell you that the bees 

 upon this occasion have recourse to the same instru- 

 ment which ladies use to cool themselves when an 

 apartment is overheated ? Yet it is strictly the case. 

 By means of their marginal hooks, they unite each 

 pair of wings into one plane slightly concave, thus 

 acting upon the air by a surface nearly as large as pos- 

 sible, and forming for them a pair of very ample fans, 

 which in their vibrations describe an arch of 90°. These 

 vil)rations are so rapid as to render the wings almost 

 invisible. When they are engaged in ventilation, the 

 bees by means of their feet and claws fix themselves as 

 lirmly as possible to the place they stand upon. The 

 first pair of legs is stretched out before; the second 

 extended to the right and left; whilst the third, placed 

 Tery near each other, are perpendicular to the abdo- 

 men, so as to give that part considerable elevation. 



Maraldi, and after him Reaumur, long ago noticed 

 this action of the bees ; but they attributed to it an ef- 

 fect the reverse of that which it really produces ; the 

 former imagining it to occasion directly the high tem- 

 perature of the hive, and the latter indirectly"*. It 



» ii. 339. " Reaum. v. 672. 



