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XXIV. Observations on Dzierzon’s Theory of Reproduc- 
tion in the Honey Bee. By Joun Lown. (Communi- 
cated by the PRESIDENT.) 
[Read Ist July, 1867. } 
Tue mysteries of the bee-hive have in all ages engaged 
the attention and attracted the study of the naturalist. 
The many interesting and peculiar phenomena which 
present themselves to the diligent student of bee-life 
have given rise to the most varied and conflicting theories 
in the physiology of reproduction. It is unnecessary for 
my purpose to do more than simply allude to these ; nor 
shall I particularize the advances which have from time 
to time been made im apiarian science by many distin- 
guished naturalists and observers. Swammerdam, 
Réaumur, Mademoiselle Jurme, Schirach, Huber,. and 
others, have contributed much to dispel the mists of 
ignorance and prejudice which so long encompassed the 
natural history of the bee. To Francis Huber, of Geneva, 
especially are we indebted for much valuable and im- 
portant information, and yet the ‘‘ Prince of Apiarians ” 
himself, notwithstanding the flood of light which, by his 
patient and persevering studies, he has thrown upon the 
subject, has failed to place before us, im all its clearness 
and entirety, the true history of the bee. Many pheno- 
mena still remained unexplained, or misunderstood ; 
and unsolved riddles still hung around the physiology of 
reproduction. 
In 1845, a new theory was promulgated m Germany” 
by an apiarian of great eminence and distinction. The 
continental naturalists have always shown themselves 
foremost in explaining the hidden mysteries of bee- 
life; and now, in the person of Dzierzon, Pastor of 
Carlsmarkt, near Brieg, in Silesia, a new and startling 
theory of reproduction in the bee was promulgated, 
which, in the words of its distinguished author, 1s said to 
have “explained all the phenomena of the bee-hive as 
perfectly as the Copernican hypothesis the phenomena of 
the heavens.” 
Dzierzon first expressed his views upon the reproduc- 
tion of bees in the year 1845, in the Bienenzeitung of 
Eichstadt, and afterwards published them as a regular 
theory, in a separate bee-book, in 1852. 
TR. ENT. SOC. THIRD SERIES, VOL. V. PART VII.—DEC. 1867. 
