Retrospect of French Literature—Miscellanies. 
fine arts were invoked to immortalise 
his person,*and a crowd of painters, 
sculptors, and engravers, reproduced it 
@n canvas, paper, and marble. 
The poets, ip their turn, were not 
idle. Chenier published an ode; Durot 
Cubieres a poem; and Vievre an epi- 
taph, 
“ Nouvelles Observations sur les A- 
beilles,” &c.—New Observations relative 
to Bees, addressed to M. Charles Bonnet, 
by Francis Husre, 1 vol. 12mo. 
M. Eluber, a native,—for we cannot 
now, as formerly, teri him a citizen, of 
Genevya,—has paid great attention to the 
natural history of the Bee, an: insect, 
which, although constantly under the eye 
and observation of man, has not as yet 
had its habits, its manners, and its ge- 
nius, sufficiently explained. In our own 
country, many able and curious persons 
have dedicated much time and attention 
to this branch of knowledge, but none of 
them, we believe, have been so- fortu- 
nate in the result of their speculations; 
although it is but fair to suppose, that 
the author of this little treatise has pro- 
fited by the discoveries of all his pre- 
decessors, and begun his experiments 
exactly where theirs tiad ended. 
In order to enable him to study this 
interesting animal with more attention, 
he himselt invented a leaf, or book-hive, 
which is so constructed as to’open and 
shut in the same manner as a volume. 
it consists of a combination of thin 
boxes, of a foot square, placed opposite 
each other, and connected together by 
means of hinges. 
Knowing from experience, that bees 
are ever ready to complete a comb in 
the precise direction in which they find 
it, he placed pieces of this material in 
every box, so as to induce them to pro- 
ceed in the work, in a line perpendicular 
to the horizon. This position enabled 
him to examine the surfaces of the combs 
at his leisure, after the colonies had been 
fairly sevtled, 
In the course of his correspondence 
with the author® of a work heretofore of 
some celebrity, intitled “ La Contempla- 
tion de Nature,” and also with the com- 
piler of a treatise on the Apiary, he in- 
sists at large on the impregnation of the 
queen bee. Notwithstanding the drones 
are all allowed to be males, it has been 
generally denied that any intercourse 
subsists between them and the sovereign 
of the hive, although this theory was 
ein, 
* M, Bonnet, 
669 
supported by the authority of Linnaeus 
himself. To put the matter to the test, 
M. Huber, in 1787 aud 1788, selected 
a number of queen bees, which he him- 
self knew to be in a virgin state, as he 
had been acquainted with their history 
trom the first moment of their formation. 
By attenuvely observing them, he at 
length discovered, that if confined within 
the walls of the hive they continue bar- 
ren. To ensure fertility, it becomes ne- 
cessary for the qneen to soar high in the 
air, where she receives the caresses of 
the male for the first time, and itis not 
a little remarkable, that this intercourse 
inevitably proves fatal to the jatter. 
He accounts for the multitude of 
drones, by pointing out the necessity of 
the queen’s being met by some of them, 
during her amorous excursion; for if this 
did not occur, she could not be fecua 
dated. Should no sinister event inter- 
vene, the queen begins to lay the eggs 
of the working bees forty-six hours after 
this intercourse, and she continues for 
the space of eleven months to lay these 
only; after the expiration of this period, 
the eggs of the drones are regularly pro= 
duced, But in case of a retarded fecuns 
dation, beyond the twentieth or twenty 
first day an imperfect impregnation takes 
place, and instead of disclosing the egos of 
the working bees and of drones equally, 
those of the males only are engendered. 
This disastrous event is made known to 
the careful observer by the appearance 
of the queen, whose body is shorter than 
common, while the extremity 1s also more 
slender than usual, and the two first rings 
near the thorax are swollen to an ancome- 
mon magnitude. 
We are told that a queen, in ordinary 
circumstances, lays at the rate of 50 eggs 
a-day, or perhaps 3000 within the space 
of two calendar months. In extraordis 
nary circumstances, such as we have als 
ready alluded to, a greater proportion of 
drones eggs than usual was laid; on this, 
after the expiration of some time, the 
working bees finding themselves overs 
whelmed ‘by the great disproportion of a 
class calculated to eat up their labours, 
abandoned the hive, atter having dis 
patched their unfortunate queen. 
We learn also, what had been indeed 
suggested by others before, that the 
workers. instead of being neutral, ave 
really of the female sex ; and that on the 
loss or extinction of the sovereign, grubs 
of workers may beuctually converted te 
queens; butthen, to enable'them ‘to a& 
tain the necessary size, and develope the 
organs 
