stating that he had found only the larger form last year, in the same place 
in which he had found only the smaller form three years hefore. It was 
commonly supposed that the smaller form was only a second brood, but this 
did not appear to be the case. 
Papers read, Sc. 
" On the Geodephagous Coleoptera of Japan, chiefly collected by Mr. 
George Lewis," by H. W. Bates, F.L.S., &c. 
" Contributions to Entomological Bibliography up to 1862, No. 1," by 
Albert Miiller, F.L.S. 
Mr. F. Smith read the following translation of some notes, " On the 
Sahvary Organs of the Honey Bee," by C. Th. v. Siebold : — 
" At the annual agricultural meeting held in October, 1871, at Munich, 
a well-known apiarian, Herr Mehring, had exhibited a pecuhar kind of 
honey, named by him ' Kunst-Honig ' (artificial honey), which he had pro- 
duced by feeding his bees exclusively with malt. This honey excited great 
interest; and the question was raised (and denied by many), whether this 
substance was real honey ; and whether, consequently, the bee was able to 
change malt-sugar in its stomach into honey. The physiologico-chemical 
part of the inquiry into the production of the bee was taken up in Liebig's 
laboratory by Dr. Von Schneider, who, unfortunately, was prevented from 
carrying the investigation to the end, but arrived at the conclusion that 
the hydrates of carbon (malt-sugar and malt-deatrin) contained in the malt 
are actually changed by the bee into honey-sugar; and that Mehring's 
honey does certainly not differ from other honies, except in the absence of 
specific aromas which are imparted to them from the flowers on which the 
bees have been collecting. Practically, Herr Mehring's discovery is of 
importance ; inasmuch as the malt-food prepared by him contains not only 
all the ingredients necessary for the life of the bee, but also for the forma- 
tion of honey ; and therefore can be used with advantage in parts of the 
country where flowering plants are scarce. With regard to the wax. Dr. 
Von Schneider maintains that it is undoubtedly a secretion of the honey- 
bee, formed chiefly out of different kinds of sugar ; but that the production 
of wax from sugar is not continued without the simultaneous addition of 
food containing nitrogen. After the fact had thus been established that honey 
and wax are not substances found ready made, and simply gathered by the 
bee ; but productions which have undergone chemical changes through 
having come in contact with the secretions of the insect ; Prof. Von Siebold 
directed his attention to the investigation of the secreting organs, a portion 
of the anatomy which, indeed, had previously been entirely neglected, but 
is now treated for the first time with regard to the special functions those 
organs appear to perform in the preparation of the products of the bee. 
