THE BLIND NATURALIST. 57 



HENRIETTA. 



But, aunt, how could he make any observations when 

 blind 1 ? 



MRS. F. 



By employing 1 the eyes of others. He had, then, an intel- 

 ligent and devoted servant, Frangois Burnens, whom he 

 trained to the task; and such was the enthusiasm that Huber 

 inspired in those around him, that Burnens would brave the 

 fury of a whole hive, or seize a wasps' nest in spite of the 

 stings of the horde of wasps who defended it, in order to 

 arrive at some fact which his master was desirous of ascer- 

 taining. Huber's wife, and subsequently his son, assisted 

 him also by their observations ; and, by attentively listening 

 to their recitals, Huber was enabled to form so clear an 

 image of what they described, that, as he once gaily observed 

 to Professor De Candolle " I am much more sure than you 

 of what I relate, for you publish what your eyes alone have 

 seen, whereas I take the medium between several witnesses;" 

 a plausible mode of reasoning, perhaps, but happy was it for 

 him that religious resignation had taught him thus to view 

 his infirmity. 



ESTHER. 



What were Huber's principal discoveries] 



MRS. F. 



He determined the origin of the wax, and of the propolis; 

 he discovered how the bees prepared the former for their 

 cells; he assigned the part which each class of bees takes in 

 the construction of the hive; he described the battles between 

 the queen bees ; studied the origin of the swarms, and first 

 gave a detailed history of these flying colonies ; he proved 

 the use of the antennae in enabling the bees to distinguish 

 each other; he determined the influence of the size of the cell 

 upon the size of the insect which issues from it; and showed 

 the ravages committed among the hives by the Death's-head 

 Moth {Sphinx atropos}. He also made many curious researches 

 upon the respiration of bees, from which he discovered that 

 these insects, by a peculiar movement of their wings, agitate 



