3l6 THE INSECT WORLD. 



It will be seen that he had profited only too well by what he had 

 read in Greek and Roman authors. 



The bee was very much thought of in ancient Egypt, and is often 

 represented on their monuments, above the sculptured ornaments 

 which contain proper names, with two semicircles and a sort of sheaf, 

 or fasciculus. Champollion Figeac thinks that this group, taken 

 together, represents a title added to a proper name. According to 

 Hor-ApoUon, another commentator on Egyptian hieroglyphics, the bee 

 in the country of the Pharaohs was the emblem of a people sweetly 

 submissive to the orders of its king. Nothing can be better than 

 this comparison. It was for this reason, no doubt, that Napoleon I. 

 sprinkled the symbolical bees over the imperial mantle which bears 

 the arms of his dynasty. 



All the fables, all the hypotheses, spread about and cherished by 

 the ancients respecting these industrious little insects, were dissipated 

 in a moment when, by the invention of glass beehives, first made 

 in the beginning of last century by Maraldi, a mathematician of 

 Nice, we were enabled to observe their operations and habits. It is 

 from this period only that our exact knowledge of the really wonderful 

 life of these insects dates. Before Maraldi, the Dutch naturalist, 

 Swammerdam, had written an excellent " History of Bees." He died 

 before he had published his work, and when, a long while after his 

 death, it was at length printed, other investigators had already pushed 

 on their observations further than he had. I'hanks to the invention 

 of Maraldi, Reaumur, John Hunter, Schirach, and Francis Huber, 

 had unveiled, by their admirable researches, the wonderful habits ol 

 these insects. The discoveries of Francis Huber seem to be almost 

 miraculous, when we remember that this observer was blind from the 

 age of seventeen. 



Deprived of sight, Francis Huber did not the less wish to conse- 

 crate his life to the observation and the study of Nature. He caused 

 tlie best works of his day on natural history and physics to be read 

 to him, his usual reader being his servant, named Francis Burnens, a 

 native of the Pays de Vaud. The honest Burnens took a singular 

 interest in all he read, and showed by his judicious reflections the 

 true talent of an observer, and Huber resolved to cultivate his talent. 

 Very soon he could place implicit reliance on his companion, and 

 see with another's eyes as if they were his own. 



Tne two naturalists (we do not hesitate to give this title to the 

 poor peasant of the canton of Vaud who so well seconded his master 

 in his long hours of study) conceived a host of original experiments, 

 which led them to discover truths which no one up to that time had 



