198 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



anemometers continued motionless. The same expe- 

 riment was next repeated with the door shut, with 

 precisely the same result. After the air of the vessel 

 had been renewed, the taper was again introduced, 

 and the ventilator set in motion : immediately, as ap- 

 peared by the oscillations of the anemometers, two 

 currents of air were established, and the brilliancy of 

 the flame was not diminished during the whole course 

 of the experiment, which might have been prolonged 

 for an indefinite time. A thermometer placed in the 

 lower part of the apparatus rose to 11^°; and the 

 temperature was evidently still more elevated at the 

 top of the receiver. 



The Creator often has one end in view in the ac- 

 tions of animals, (and nothing more conspicuously dis- 

 plays the invisible hand that governs the universe,) 

 while the agents themselves have another. This pro- 

 bably is the case in the present instance, since we can 

 scarcely suppose that the bees beat the air with their 

 wings in order to ventilate the hive, but rather to re- 

 lieve themselves from some disagreeable sensation which 

 oppresses them. The following experiments prove that 

 one of their objects in this action, as it is with ladies 

 w hen they use their fans, is to cool themselves when 

 they suffer from too great heat. When Huber once 

 opened the shutter of a glazed hive, so that the solar 

 rays darted upon the combs covered with bees, a hum- 

 ming, the sign of ventilation, soon was heard amongst 

 them, while those which Avere in the shade remained 

 tranquil. The bees composing the clusters which often 

 are suspended from the hives in summer, when they are 

 incommoded by the heat of the sun^ fan themselves with 



