«3P INSECTS. 189 



tlie secreted substance ; the bag to its reception. The 

 outlets and orifices are constructed, not merely for reliev- 

 ino- the reservoirs of their burthen, but for manufacturino- 

 the contents into a form and texture, of great external use, 

 or rather indeed of future necessity, to the life and func- 

 tions of the insect. 



II. Bees, under one character or other, have furnished 

 every naturalist with a set of observations. I shall, in 

 this place, confine myself to one ; and that is the relation 

 which obtains between the wax and the honey. No .per- 

 son, who has inspected a bee-hive, can forbear remarking, 

 how commodiously the honey is bestowed in the comb : and 

 amongst other advantages, how eflfectually the fermenta- 

 tion of the honey is prevented by distributing it into small 

 cells. The fact is, that when the honey is separated from 

 the comb, and put into jars, it runs into fermentation, with 

 a much less degree of heat than what takes place in a 

 hive. This may be reckoned a nicety ; but independently 

 of any nicety in the matter, I would ask, what could the 

 bee do with the honey, if it had not the wax? how, at least, 

 could it store it up for winter ? The wax, therefore, zxi" 

 swers a purpose with respect to the honey ; and the honey 

 constitutes that purpose with respect to the wax. This is 

 the relation between them. But the two substances, though, 

 together, of the greatest use^ and, without each other, of 

 little, come from a different origin. The bee finds the 

 honey, but makes the wax. The honey is lodged in the 

 nectaria of flowers, and probably undergoes little alteration ; 

 is merely collected ; whereas the wax is a ductile tenacious 

 paste, made out of a dry powder, not simply by kneading it 

 with a liquid, but by a digestive process in the body of the 

 bee. What account can be rendered of facts so circum- 

 stanced, but that the animal, being intended to feed upon 

 honey, was, by a peculiar external configuration, enabled 

 to procure it 1 that, moreover, Avanting the honey when it 

 could not be procured at all, it was further endued with 

 the no less necessary faculty of constructing repositories 

 for its preservation ? which faculty, it is evident, must de- 

 pend, primarily, upon the capacity of providing suitable 

 materials. Two distinct functions go to make up the 

 ability. First, the power in the bee, with respect to wax, 

 of loading the farina of flowers upon its thighs; microsco- 

 pic observers speak of the spoon-shaped appendages, with 

 which the thighs of bees are beset for this very purpose ; 

 R 2 



