202 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



a similar way the so-called Spanish fly which really belongs 

 among the beetles whose ground-up bodies are used for 

 producing blisters, is merely appropriated to 'our use with- 

 out any process of subjugation. The fact remains that, so 

 far as our dealings with the insect world have gone, we 

 have really won but two of the million or more of forms to 

 captivity ; and our relations with these have nothing of the 

 humanized nature which marks our intercourse with truly 

 domesticated creatures. 



Small as are the lessons which we may read from our 

 experience with the honey-bee and the silkworm, they 

 appear clearly to indicate that, while we may expect to do 

 little with the intelligences of insects, we may fairly reckon 

 on a great field for accomplishment in the way of changes 

 in their bodily constitution. In the case of the bees the 

 facts show us that in particular conditions of climate or 

 other surroundings a certain amount of variation takes 

 place, and by proper selection either of queens or swarms 

 it may be possible considerably to extend the value of these 

 animals. The task is beset with difficulties for the reason 

 that, while in ordinary selective breeding we deal with indi- 

 viduals, we have, as before remarked, in this species to 

 regard the hive or colony as the unit and to make our 

 selection with reference to the qualities of that colony as 

 a whole. Nevertheless, with the constant advances in the 

 skill of our economic selectionists, there is reason to expect 

 that our bees may be progressively improved. On the 

 other hand, there is the chance that the progress of chemical 

 discovery may enable us at any time to manufacture honey 

 in the artificial way and of a quality indistinguishable from 

 that produced by domesticated bees ; in which case these 



