PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 169 



another : but still there will always be in nature, as well 

 as in revelation, even in those things that fall under our 

 daily observation, mysteries to exercise our faith and hu- 

 mility : so that we may always reply to the caviller, 

 " Thine own things and those that are grown up with 

 thee hast thou not known ; how then shall thy vessel 

 comprehend the way of the Highest ?" 



Various have been the conjectures of naturalists, even 

 in very recent times, with respect to the fertilization of 

 the eggs of the bee. Some have supposed, and the 

 number of males seemed to countenance the supposition, 

 that this was effected after they were deposited in the 

 cells. Of this opinion Maraldi seems to have been the 

 author, and it was adopted by Mr. Debraw of Cam- 

 bridge, who asserts that he has seen the smaller males 

 (those that are occasionally produced in cells usually ap- 

 propriated to workers) introduce their abdomen into 

 cells containing eggs, and fertilize them; and that the 

 eggs so treated proved fertile, while others that were not 

 remained sterile. The common or large drones, which 

 form the bulk of the male population of the hive, could 

 not be generally destined to this office, since their ab- 

 domen, on account of its size, could only be introduced 

 into male and royal cells. Bonnet, however, saw some 

 motions of one of these drones, which, while it passed 

 by those that were empty, appeared to strike with its ab- 

 domen the mouth of the cells containing eggs a . Swam- 

 merdam thought that the female was impregnated by 

 effluvia which issued from the male 5 . Reaumur, from 

 some proceedings that he witnessed, was convinced that 



s Bonnet, x, 259. b Bibl. Nat. i. 221. b. ed. Hill. 



