BEES-WAX AND ITS ECONOMICAL USES. 5 



Beeswax, then, is not found ready-made in nature, 

 but is produced in the bee's bod}' ; it is like honey, 

 an organic production, and not a mechanical or technical 

 one. Wax is formed in the body of the working- bee, 

 of fluid honey, and pollen. But it is not formed in- 

 voluntarily, as every well-nourished animal body forms 

 fat, but voluntarily, viz., when the bees wish to form it, 

 and when they have taken fluid honey, and pollen, in a 

 larger quantify than they need for their own bodily 

 nourishment, and the surplus is neither given as food to 



FIG. 1. Wax-scales on under side of abdomen. 



the brood, the queen, or the drones, but is retained, 

 further digested, and allowed to pass into the blood- 

 vessels, in order to be organically, chemically distilled 

 there, and to exude as a kind of fatty matter by the seg- 

 ments of the abdomen. 



The wax leaves the secreting glands in a fluid state, 

 and solidifies in the form of small transparent white 

 scales, five-cornered, shining like mother of pearl, in 

 size about two square millimetres, such as are found in 

 large numbers on the floor-boards of a strong colony 

 when comb building. 



When the bees want to build comb, they hang 



