THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



83 



higher degree, ahigherpotcncy of fertility, and 

 awaken in it tl)c germ of a more perfect being, 

 namely, a (jueeu or a -worker bee. This of 

 course she docs instinctively, Induced by the 

 Avidth of the cell lo be furnisbetl." "For the 

 production of the iLiiiales in the bee-hive, there- 

 fore, more conditions and forces are necessary 

 than for tiie production of males or drones. 

 Every mother which is capable of producing 

 worker brood, can also lay drone-eggs, but not 

 inversely." 



As was to be expected, these views upon the 

 reproduction of bees called forth the most lively 

 contradictions amongst the bee-keepers. They 

 were attacked Avilb the most violent polemics 

 in the Bek Jouiin.vl above-mentioned, at the 

 same time, however, that most of the oppo- 

 nents being destitute of any knowledge of the 

 anatomical structure of bees, and of any in- 

 sight into tlie physioloiiical import of the se.vual 

 functions in insects, laid themselves open so 

 miserably that it must have been an easy mat- 

 ter for Dzi(>rzon to silence them. But as it was 

 alinost entirelj' dilettanti speaking to dilettanti, 

 the dispute never came to an end, the most in- 

 correct, e.Ktraordinaiy, and absurd assertions 

 upon the coi)ulation, fecundation, and oviposi- 

 tion of the bees, &c., being put forward in 

 sober earnest as established truths, without its 

 being observed how completely such views, 

 devised in the fancy of a bee-keeper, were des- 

 titute of anj'thing like scientific proof. Hence 

 it was possible that simultaneously with the 

 theory set up by Dzier/.ou, which its originator 

 sought to support Ity important new evidence 

 from time to time in the Bienenzeititng, ques- 

 tions for investigation and reply were again 

 and ag.iin i)ropounded in that journal, upon 

 which we must luive long been perfectly clear, 

 since the most imi)orlant points in the repro- 

 duction of the bees had been elucidated by 

 Dzicrzon's theory. 



Thus in the different years of the Bienenzeit- 

 "ung up to the most recent time, (1856,) we 

 find the following questions i)Ut forward as not 

 satisfactorily answered, and the following points 

 referred to as doubtful by various bee-keepers: 

 namel}', Avhether the drones are really the male 

 bees; wlicther the drones might not have the 

 care of the hatching of the eggs; wiiether the 

 drones are not truly abortions; whether there 

 are not also male worker-bees; whether the 

 queen is not perhaps fertilized by caressing or 

 \)Y mere agitation; whether the copulation be- 

 tween the queen and a drone does not after all 

 take place in the bee-hive, and more of the same 

 kind. 



In opposition to these variously contradictory 

 questions, I, as Vice President of the third 

 meeting of German Bee Keepers, lield on the 

 second of June, 18o2, at Brieg, in Silesia, gave 

 an exposition of the anatomical relations of the 

 three kinds of bees, the drones, the queens, and 

 the workers, and called upon the bee-keepers 

 present to express their objections and doubts 

 against 'he particular points of the theory es- 

 tablished b}^ Dzierzon. This was done on sev- 

 eral sides; Dzierzon, who was present as presi- 

 dent of the society, defended his assertions with 

 the means which his abundant observations, 



conceived with a correct understanding, fur- 

 nished to his hand; whilst I came to his assist- 

 ance with my observations made Avith the dis- 

 secting needle and the microscope, whenever 

 reference was \\vm\v. to the dill'erent anatomical 

 relations and the signification of the internal 

 and external sexual organs of the bees. 



Althougii the majority of the ai)iarians did 

 not so quickly drop their preconceived notions 

 and incorrect views as to the economy, und es- 

 pecially the reproduction of the bees, yet a con- 

 stantly increasing number of voices was grad- 

 ually raised in the Bicnenzntung, to coniirm the 

 correctness of the individual points in the 

 theorj^ of n^produetion juit forward by Dzier- 

 zon. Peojjle began to intei'est themselves in 

 the anatomical structure of the bees and of in- 

 sects in general; they took notice of the know- 

 ledge obtained in recent times by the micro- 

 scope, by which a clearer view of the function 

 of the male seminal fluid in the interior of fe- 

 male insects had been gained. To strip every- 

 thing doubtful from those assertions in Dzicr- 

 zon's theory which still had too much of the 

 garb of a hypothesis about them, and allow 

 them to appear as naked truths, those apiarians, 

 whose sole object was to get at the truth, took 

 care that various individual bees, the exact ex- 

 amination of whose condition might furnish tiie 

 right explanation of different doubtful points in 

 Dzicrzon's theory, were handed over to prac- 

 ticed entomotomists for dissection and opinion. 

 In this waj^ this theory constantly gained in 

 firmness and form, and became strengihened in 

 such a manner that it may now claim to have 

 taken root in the soil of science, there to await 

 a further development. Great merit in regard 

 to the recognition of Dzicrzon's theory is due 

 to Baron Berlepsch, of Seebach, near Langen- 

 salza, in Thuringia, as that intelligent and ex- 

 perienced a]narian neither shunned sacrifices, 

 time or trouble to obtain the most important in- 

 formation upon the hotly contested questions 

 relating to the reproduction of bees from his 

 numerous bee-colonies, which are extremely 

 well arranged for observation. In a series of 

 apistical letters,* Berlepsch gave a sj'stematic 

 exposition of the new theor}^ of the I'eproduc- 

 tion of the bees, and supplied the individual 

 positions with proof supported upon the most 

 arduous experiments, by which he has shown 

 himself to be a distinguished observer and acute 

 naturalist. 



It must also be mentioned that Dzierzon de- 

 serves to be celebrated as making an era not 

 only in the t'heory, but also in the practice of 

 bee-keeping. He has, namely, given the bee- 

 hive an arrangement, by which it becomes pos- 

 sible for the bee-keeper not only to follow the 

 observation of the individual bee-colonies, and 

 to check the proceedings of their individual 

 members, or of the foreign intruders of the most 

 exact and certain manner; but also to control 

 and guide the entire economy of the individual 

 hives from all sides. He hit upon the happy 

 idea of causing the bees to build their combs 



*.\ transl.ation of tlip substantial portions of these apisti- 

 cal letters was published in the first volume of the Ameri- 

 can Bkb Journal, under the caption of "The Dzierzon 

 Theory." 



