188 HABITATIONS OF ANIMALS. 



lected is so abundant that the vessels cannot contain it, the 

 bees lengthen, and, of course, deepen, the honey-cells. 



Their mode of working, and the disposition and division of 

 their labor, when put into an empty hive, do much honor to 

 the sagacity of bees. They immediately begin to lay the 

 foundations of their combs, which they execute with sur- 

 prising quickness and alacrity. Soon after they begin to 

 construct one comb, they divide into two or three compa- 

 nies, each of which, in different parts of the hive, is occu- 

 pied with the same operations. By this division of labor, 

 a greater number of bees have art opportunity of being 

 employed at the same time, and, consequently, the com- 

 mon work is sooner finished. The combs are generally 

 arranged in a direction parallel to each other. An inter- 

 val, or street, between the combs, is always left, that the 

 bees may have a free passage, and an easy communication 

 with the different combs in the hive. These streets are 

 just wide enough to allow two bees to pass one another. 

 Beside these parallel streets to shorten their journey when 

 working, they leave several round cross passages, which 

 are always covered. 



Hitherto we have chiefly taken notice of the manner in 

 which bees construct and polish their cells, without treating 

 of the materials they employ. We have not marked the dif- 

 ference between the crude matter collected from flowers and 

 the true wax. Every body knows that bees carry into their 

 hives, by means of their hind thighs, great quantities of the 

 farina, or dust, of flowers. After many experiments made by 

 Reaumur, with a view to discover whether this dust contained 

 real wax, he was obliged to acknowledge that he could never 

 find that wax formed any part of its composition. He at 

 length discovered, that wax was not a substance produced by 

 the mixture of farina with any glutinous substance, nor by 

 trituration, or any mechanical operation. By long and at- 

 tentive observation, he found that the bees actually eat the 

 farina which they so industriously collect ; and that this 

 farina, by an animal process, is converted into wax. This 

 digestive process, which is necessary to the formation of wax, 

 is carried on in the second stomach, and perhaps in the intes- 

 tines of bees. After knowing the place where this operation 

 is performed, chemists will probably allow, that it is equally 

 difficult to make real wax with the farina of flowers, as to 

 make chyle with animal or vegetable substances, a work 

 which is daily executed by our own stomach and intestines 



