Hexagonal Structure for mod in Cooling Beeswax. 125 



Tn places where the wax plate had been of uneven depth 

 or had cooled too rapidly, tlie comb presented an irregular 

 ap[ earance, following in form the irregular hexagonal bases 

 beneath, the result being very distinctive and striking to the 

 practised eye of an apiarist. 



When in a natural state tlie newly secreted wax is formed 

 into a small pendent plate, it is probable that the bees 

 crowding around produce the required amount of heat to 

 soften or to keep soft the newly deposited wax, and allow it 

 to cool very gradually when a few hexagonal bodies form 

 within the plate, and these must be soon afterwards hollowed 

 out and built upon. The same process takes place repeatedly 

 against the sides of nev,'ly formed hexagons^ until the comb 

 is large enough to suit the requirements of the bee, the sizes 

 of the cells being partly influenced and regulated, as above 

 stated, by the rapidity or otherwise of the process of cooling 

 of the wax, and so indirectly, as previously mentioned, by 

 the thickness of the cooling mass*. The size of the crystals 

 may be varied experimentally from those of nearly an inch 

 across to others of microscopic dimensions. 



At the time of writing this paper we have not yet succeeded 

 in casting a large sheet of wax containing groups or rows of 

 hexagons so perfectly regular as those which are to be seen 

 in a natural comb or in a comb built upon the ordinary 

 manufactured comb-foundation. We do not pretend, even 

 after many experiments, to be able to cast a foundation of 

 hexagons with the same comparative exactitude as those 

 made by a bee. Although we have little doubt that we may 

 soon be able to do so, we cannot expect in a few limited 

 experiments to compete with the bee, whose seeming aptitude 

 is probably the outcome of ages of natural selection and 

 adaptation. Yet the bees still prefer to adopt our less regular 

 groups or rows of crystals as bases to work upon rather than 

 pull our wax-plate to pieces so as to recast the wax with 

 greater regularity. 



A further outcome of our discoveries is that paraffin wax 

 and adulterated beeswax do not assume the same hexagonal 

 form as pure beeswax. We are not aware that other " animal 

 fats " on cooling assume so regular an hexagonal form. 



We have succeeded in producing a variety of characteristic 

 forms of these pseudo- crystalline bodies by the treatment of 

 certain waxes with other fats, oils, or waxes. The analytical 



* The temperature withiu a Live, as repeatedly measured by two seU- 

 recordiug thermometers in June 18*J9 at Ucktield, reached 105° Fahr. 

 without contact with the bodies of the bees. 



