XV111. 



THE HONEY BEE. 



269 



but few supporters. One is tempted to marvel at the 

 ability of the drone to co-ordinate 24,000 separate images 

 into a single distinct object. Picture the confusion of 

 images of one who had sipped too freely of the sweet but 

 delusive dregs of the punch-bowl ! Under similar circum- 

 stances human folk are reported to see double. Think of 

 the appalling condition of an inebriate drone ! 



Those who believe the faceted eye to be one organ 

 with many parts, contend that each facet and its under- 

 lying structures gives, not a complete image of the 

 external object as a whole, but the image of a single 



DIAGRAM OF MOSAIC VISION. 



point of that object. Thus there is formed, by the juxta- 

 position of continuous points, a stippled image or an image 

 in mosaic. Hence this view is known as Miiller's mosaic 

 hypothesis. How this is effected will be readily seen with 

 the aid of the diagram. At a I are a number of trans- 

 parent rods, separated by pigmented material absorbent 

 of light. They represent the crystalline cones. At c d is 

 an arrow placed in front of them : at e f is a screen 

 placed behind them. Rays of light start in all directions 

 from any point, c, of the arrow ; but of these only that 

 which passes straight down one of the transparent rods 

 reaches the screen. Those which pass obliquely into 



