THE 2EMEERICSri BEB JQ^RNai^. 



437 



HUBER. 



His Liifcand Services to the Bee- 

 Keeping World. 



We take the following interesting 

 sketch from Gravenhorst's lUuslratcd 

 Bee Journal. It was written bj- Mr. 

 T. Kellen, of Luxemburg. The trans- 

 lation is furnished by W. P. Root, for 

 Gleanings : 



Francis Huber, by his investigations 

 . and researches in apiculture, did more 

 to promote this science than all his 

 predecessors who had employed them- 

 selves in the study of this interesting 

 insect. It is his discoveries alone that 

 marked that golden age in the histoi-y 

 of apiculture which is destined to re- 

 main for all ages. Ruber's observa- 

 tions are not only of the greatest im- 

 portance of themselves, but wonderful 

 for the manner in which they were 

 made ; for Huber was blind. 



This distinguished man was born in 

 Geneva, July 2, 1750. He was the 

 son of a prosperous and resjjectable 

 family, which as early as the 17th cen- 

 tury were celebrated for their knowl- 

 edge of the arts and sciences. His 

 father, John Huber (born in 1722, died 

 in 1790), was well known on account 

 of his attachment to the celebrated 

 French philosopher Voltaire. 



From his earliest youth Huber 

 showed a passionate predilection for 

 natural history, and he applied himself 

 to study with such zeal as to endanger 

 his health, so that at the age of fifteen 

 the reflection of blinding snow de- 

 stroyed his sight. If ever a man bit- 

 terly deplored the loss of eyesight, 

 that man was Huber. But his misfor- 

 tune did not hinder him from applying 

 himself to the study of those insects 

 for which he had an especial liking ; 

 namelj-, the bees. It was this little 

 insect that turned the darkness of the 

 investigator into daj' ; for Huber was 

 the first to see clearly into that domain 

 which to the best eyes had previously 

 remained in darkness. 



Huber did not lose his vigor of mind, 

 for he went forward in the study of 

 bees : but he could do this only by the 

 help of his wife, Marie-Aimee Lullin ; 

 his neiee. Miss Jurine, and, above all, 

 his servant Burnens. He himself mani- 

 fested the most untiring perseverance, 

 and the greatest ingenuity, so that, by 

 Burnens' sagacity, all of Huber's ex- 

 periments with bees were practically 

 demonstrated. 



Miss Jurine, who loved natural his- 

 torj- above all else, supplemented 

 Huber's work all she could, fearing not 



to take up the dissecting-knife and 

 microscope in his aid. She was the 

 first after Swammerdam to demon- 

 strate that worker-bees are females. 

 She it was, too, who, with Hnber, es- 

 tablished the principles on which the 

 sages of our century grounded the doc- 

 trine of parthenogenesis. Besides that. 

 Miss Jurine was Hulier's secretary, full 

 of willingness and self-devotion. Every 

 day she noted down the results of the 

 new investigations, and she also wrote 

 the letters, which Huber dictated, to 

 Charles Bonnet and his friends, and 

 imparted to him the results of his 

 labors, and directed their attention to 

 numerous (piestions relating to bees. 



Huber's interest in bees was greatly 

 enhanced bv tlie re«e;irches and writ- 



FBAXCIS HCUER. 



ings of Swammerdam, Reaumur, Schi- 

 rach, and probably also the celebrated 

 Swiss bee-keeper, Duchet de Remauf- 

 fens, and the Messrs. Gelieu. As a 

 conclusion to the investigations of 

 these men, it was possible for him, in 

 spite of his unfortunate surroundings, 

 to add greatly to the realm of apicul- 

 ture ; hence we may not forget that he 

 everywhere encouraged and helped 

 others by the nobility of his life. 



In his latter days he lived retired, 

 but in peace, at Lausanne, where he 

 died Dec. 22, 1832, at the age of 83. 



Huber's discoveries are known to 

 scholars through his letters to Charles 

 Bonnet ; and they made his name so 

 celebrated in all Europe, and even in 

 America, that for many years he was 

 recognized as the greatest apicultural 

 genius ; and even yet Hamet calls him 

 the greatest of the lovers of bees (/c 

 plus grand cles apiphiks). 



It was in 1796 that his first epoch- 

 making work was brought to light, 

 bearing the title, Xonrelles Observations 

 sur les Abeilles (New Observations on 



Bees). His son, Peter Huber. in 1814 

 issued the work in two editions, and 

 added thereto an appendi.x in regard 

 to the origin of wax. 



Huber's work is, not only on account 

 of its contents, but for the peculiar 

 circumstances un<ler which it was first 

 brought to light, entirely without 

 parallel in seientilic literature. The 

 recognition which it received was uni- 

 versal, so that, after the first appear- 

 ance of the work, Huber was received 

 into the I'rench Academy of Sciences, 

 and other scientific bodies. 



The New Ob.servations were trans- 

 lated into nearly every European 

 tongue. The Saxon commissariat 

 Riem, in Dresden, tran.slated it into 

 German in 1798, and Pastor Kleine. of 

 Luetliorst, translated it again in ]8.o6, 

 and published another edition in 18li9, 

 with notes. 



Huber, by his observations on the 

 secrets of bee-life, made clear what 

 the mo.st sagacious and learned ob- 

 servers from the time of Aristotle and 

 Aristomachus down to Swammcnlam 

 and Reaumur had sought for in vain ; 

 and it is to be the more regretted that 

 some German bee-keepers of great in- 

 fluence, such as, for instance, Spitzner 

 and Matuschka, gave him no recogni- 

 tion. 



He gave interesting explanations in 

 regard to the habits of bees, their res- 

 piration, the origin of wax, the con- 

 j struction of comb, etc. He confirmed 

 Schirach's proposition, that by a change 

 in the mode of treatment and food of 

 larval bees, queens could be reared 

 from worker-eggs, and showed, like- 

 wise, the influence which the cell ex- 

 erted on the insects. 



He showed further, that not only the 

 queen but a certain species of worker- 

 bee could lay fertile eggs, and showed, 

 likewise, the function of drones. In 

 opposition to Braw, Hattorf, Contardi, 

 Reaumur, and others, who held very 

 peculiar opinions in regard to the fer- 

 tilization of queens, Huber showed 

 that the fertilization takes place out- 

 side of the hive, at the same time 

 that drones are flying, and that the 

 union is eftected in the air, and that 

 the queen, on her return from the 

 flight, has adhering to her body the 

 evTdences of fertilization, and that egg- 

 laying takes place about 46 hours 

 afterward. 



These and numerous other experi- 

 ments he often proved in his works 

 with the utmost exactness ; and es- 

 pecially did he lay down the most im- 

 portant and interesting information in 

 regard to feeding bees, their method 

 ofljuilding, the leaf-hive, foul brood, 

 etc., in his letters to an eminent api- 

 culturist in Switzerland, Mr. C. F. P. 

 Dubied. These eighteen verj- long 

 letters of Hulier, the first of which was 



