VII] OF THE BEE'S CELL 333 



whether such physical or mechanical pressure, more or less inter- 

 mittently exercised, could produce the all but perfectly smooth, 

 plane surfaces and the all but perfectly definite and constant 

 angles which characterise the cell, whether it be constructed of 

 wax or papery pulp. It seems more likely that we have to do 

 with a true surface-tension efi'ect ; in other words, that the walls 

 assume their configuration when in a semi-fluid state, while the 

 papery pulp is still liquid, or while the wax is warm under the 

 high temperature of the crowded hive*. Under these circum- 

 stances, the direct efforts of the wasp or bee may be supposed 

 to be limited to the making of a tubular cell, as thin as the nature 

 of the material permits, and packing these little cells as close as 

 possible together. It is then easily conceivable that the sym- 

 metrical tensions of the adjacent films (though somewhat retarded 

 by viscosity) should suffice to bring the whole system into equi- 

 librium, that is to say into the precise configuration which the 

 comb actually presents. In short, the Maraldi pyramids which 

 terminate the bee's cell are precisely identical with the facets of 

 a rhombic dodecahedron, such as we have assumed to constitute 

 (and which doubtless under certain conditions do constitute) the 

 surfaces of contact in the interior of a mass of soap-bubbles or 

 of uniform parenchymatous cells ; and there is every reason to 

 believe that the physical explanation is identical, and not merely 

 mathematically analogous. 



The remarkable passage in which Bufton discusses the bee's 

 cell and the hexagonal configuration in general is of such historical 

 importance, and tallies so closely with the whole trend of our 

 enquiry, that I will quote it in full: "Dirai-je encore un mot; 

 ces cellules des abeilles, tant vantees, tant admirees, me fournissent 

 une preuve de plus contre I'enthousiasme et I'admiration ; cette 

 figure, toute geometrique et toute reguliere qu'elle nous parait, et 

 qu'elle est en efEet dans la speculation, n'est ici qu'un resultat 

 mecanique et assez imparfait qui se trouve souvent dans la nature, 



possible, from the extreme thinness of the Uttle plate, that they could have effected 

 this by gnawing away the convex side; and I suspect that the bees in such cases 

 stand on opposite sides and push and bend the ductile and warm wax (which as 

 I have tried is easily done) into its proper intermediate plane, and thus flatten it." 

 * Since writing the above, I see that MiillenhofE gives the same explanation, 

 and declares that the waxen wall is actually a Flussigkeitshdutchen, or liquid film. 



