Rev. S. Haughton on the Origin of Species. 427. 



quacy of the causes assigned would lead to a treatise longer than 

 that of Buffon, Lamarck, or Darwin ; and I must therefore 

 content myself with an example. The humble bee and the hive- 

 bee coexist together, and the latter is supposed to be developed 

 from the former by the law of natural selection, breeding, in 

 succession, bees possessed of the talent of economizing more and 

 more of wax in the construction of their cells. 



1. The humble bee constructs single cells and uses 100 units 

 of wax. 



2. A bee (not known to science, but, doubtless, extinct) was 

 grown, that made cells in the form of equilateral triangles placed 

 in double combs, with flat bottoms to the cells. This bee used 

 only 50 units of wax. 



3. A bee (also extinct) was grown, that built square cells in 

 double combs. This bee used only 41§ units of wax. 



4. A bee (also extinct) was grown, forming hexagonal cells 

 with flat bottoms, in double combs. This bee used 33^ units 

 of wax. 



5. The hive-bee (now living side by side with his humble 

 progenitor) was produced by natural selection dependent on the 

 economy of wax, arising from the contrivance of substituting for 

 the flat bottoms of the hexagonal cells the trihedral angles and 

 planes of the rhombic dodecahedron. 



This bee {our bee) uses- 32§ units of wax. 



6. The Bee of the Future (not yet produced), which shall 

 have learned how to construct the cell described by the mathe- 

 matician L'Hullier. 



This bee will be broader and shorter than the present, the 

 breadth and length admitting of prediction to any degree of 

 approximation. 



This Bee of the Future will only require 24^ units of wax ! ! 

 Vivat Geomelria ! 



Of these six species of bee (the first and the fifth are living), 

 No. 5 using only 32 § lbs. of wax in the construction of its cells 

 for every 100 lbs. used by No. 1. According to the Malthusian 

 law, No. 5 has exterminated No. 4, by virtue of the trifling 

 advantage of |rds of a pound of wax in every 100 lbs. ; and this 

 slight advantage is gravely alleged as the efficient cause of con- 

 verting one species of bee into another ! This would be all very 

 well, if No. 1, the spendthrift humble bee, were not still living, 

 and holding his ground well against his enemies, to bear witness 

 against this silly theory. 



In fact, the whole question of the economy of wax, and other 

 such questions, require a thorough sifting. To my mind, it is 

 evident that economy of wax has nothing whatever to do with 

 the making of the bee's cells, but that this and other properties, 



28* 



