TJO on the instinct of animah. -^"g- 7« 



own arts, they need no teaching nor training, nor is the 

 a.4 ever improved or lost. Bees gather their honey and 

 their wax, they fabricate their combs, and rear their young 

 at this day, neither better nor worse than they did when 

 Virgil so sweetl)' sung their works. 



The work of every animal is, indeed, like the works 

 of nature, perfect in its kind, and can bear the most criti- 

 cal examination of the mechanic or the mathematician. 

 One example from the animal last mentioned may serve 

 to illu'-trate this. 



Bees, it is well known, construct their combs with 

 small cells on both sides, fit both for holding their store 

 of hone), and for rearing their young. There are only 

 three pofsible figures of the cells, which can make them 

 all equal and similar, without any uselefs interstices. 

 These are the equilateral triangle, the square, and "the 

 regular hexagon. 



It is well known to mathematicians, that there is not 

 a fourth way pofsible, in which a plane may be cut into 

 little spaces that (liall be equal, similar, and regular, with- 

 out leaving any interstices. Of the three, the hexagon 

 is the most proper, both for conveniency and strength. 

 Bees, as if they knew this, make their cells regular 

 hexagons. 



As the combs have cells on both sides, the cells may either 

 be exactly opposite, having partition against partition, or 

 the bottom of a cell may rest upon the partitions between 

 the cells on the other side, which will serve as a buttrefs to 

 strengthen it. The last way is best for strength j accor- 

 dingly, the bottom of each cell rests against the point 

 •where three partitions meet on the other side, which gives 

 it all the strength pofsible. 



The bottom of a cell may either be one plane, per- 

 pcndicuhr to the side partitions, or it may be composed 



