THE INDUSTRIES OF THE HIVE 51 



results of the process of wax-making is the elimination 

 of oxygen from the honey. There is of weight eight 

 times as much oxygen in honey as of hydrogen and 

 carbon combined; while in wax there is at least 

 sixteen times as much carbon and hydrogen as of 

 oxygen. Though wax is a fatty substance, yet it 

 is not the animal fat of bees, as is so often asserted; 

 it is a product especially developed for a far different 

 purpose than is the fat of animals. The bees are 

 much superior to us in this respect, since they manu- 

 facture from their own bodies the building materials 

 for their homes. 



The special apparatus for the secretion of wax is 

 very interesting to the student skilled in microscopic 

 investigation. The outward or visible portion of 

 this apparatus consists of four pairs of little mem- 

 branous plates on the under side of the abdomen; 

 these are not visible unless the body is torn apart and 

 dissected, because they are on the front portions of 

 the second, third, fourth and fifth abdominal seg- 

 ments, and each is covered by the rear portion of the 

 segment just in front of it. Immediately within 

 each of these wax plates is a gland which secretes 

 the wax in liquid form, and it passes through the 

 membrane by a kind of osmosis, considerably more 

 mysterious than is that most mysterious process 

 ordinarily. As the wax passes through the mem- 

 brane it hardens and is pushed backward behind the 

 segment which covers it and protects the wax plate, 

 and appears as a pearly scale on the abdomen of the 

 bee. (Plate VI.) 



