438 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAU 



Darwin's AUepd "Mislate." 



Written for theAmerlcaji BeeJouinial 



BV ALLEN PKINGLE. 



I have read Rev. L. J. Templiivs arti- 

 cle with the caption, " Some Mistakes of 

 Darwin," on page 215. 



Mr. Temp] in seeks to show that the 

 great naturalist, whose remains now re- 

 pose in Westminster Abbey, and whose 

 works have carried such dismay into the 

 ranks of the profession to which Mr. 

 Templin belongs, is " away off" in some 

 of his facts, to say nothing of "his spec- 

 ulations in regard to Evolution," all of 

 which, according to Mr. T., " goes to 

 prove that it is better to use one's brains 

 and eyes than to be blindly led by a 

 great name." 



It is not surprising that the clergy 

 should attempt to discredit the man who 

 has proved that humanity is a develop- 

 ment from lower forms instead of being 

 a special creation. This criticism of 

 Darwin as to the " pairing for each 

 birth," and the "cell-building," appears 

 to me to be far-fetched. I do not sup- 

 pose that Darwin was infallible. While 

 there may be a few mistakes of small 

 moment in the "vast array of facts in 

 natural Listory " which he has given to 

 the world, the two instances cited by 

 Mr. Templin can hardly be accounted as 

 such fairly. 



When Darwin says, "All vertebrate 

 animals, all insects, and some other 

 large groups of animals, pair for each 

 birth," he doubtless means by each birth 

 the litter or group of offspring which 

 result from one periodical fertilization — 

 in the case of the queen-bee one fertili- 

 zation. There may be intercourse once 

 during a pairing or several times : and 

 the eggs laid or offspring born as the 

 result, though separated by days or 

 weeks or (as in the case of "the queen- 

 bee) months, might be considered of the 

 same litter and the same birth. I would 

 direct Mr. Templin's and the readers' at- 

 tention to the sentence in Darwin's work 

 immediately preceding the one from 

 which Mr. T. made the extract, in which 

 the author says he " must here treat the 

 subject with extreme brevity, though I 

 have the materials prepared [he tells us] 

 for an ample discussion." 



Moreover, Darwin says there are ex- 

 ceptions ; and as to parthenogenesis he 

 distinctly makes exception of all such 

 cases. 



With reference to the other stricture 

 concerning the "cell-making instinct of 

 the hive-bee," it is well to remember that 



Darwin is not dogmatic on the point. 

 He says, " the work of construction 

 sec7iis to be," etc. He does not assert 

 positively that it is so. Mr. Templin as- 

 serts that " every one who ever saw 

 bees building comb knows that the 

 above" [that is, Darwin's description of 

 the proceeding] " is a purely fanciful 

 sketch drawn from the imagination of 

 the great naturalist." Here is one in- 

 dividual who does not know that. One 

 not conversant with Darwin, would 

 think, to read this, along with Mr. 

 Templin's other intimation, that "Dar- 

 win took some of his alleged facts at 

 second-hand," that Darwin had simply 

 read a work or two on bees, and rested 

 there for his knowledge on the subject. 

 The investigator who kept a patch of 

 ground undisturbed for 40 years to 

 watch and study the habits of the insig- 

 nificant carth-ivomis it contained, was 

 not that sort of man. The reader of 

 that chapter in the "Origin of Species," 

 in which Darwin treats of the honey-bee, 

 gets up from it astonished that the 

 greatest of naturalists, with the whole 

 of animated nature in his purview, could 

 possibly have given so much time and 

 personal investigation to the honey-bee 

 as Darwin did. Darwin's personal in- 

 vestigations into the science and art of 

 cell-building led him to differ from one 

 whom he calls "the justly-celebrated 

 elder Huber." 



At another time I shall take occasion 

 to quote Darwin on cell-building, etc. 



As to Mr. Darwin's " speculations in 

 regard to evolution," the attentive reader 

 of Darwin knows that he was anything 

 but a speculator, either philosophical or 

 metaphysical. He was a man of facts — 

 facts. These he marshalled in magnifi- 

 cent array. The inevitable deductions 

 from his facts have been largely made 

 by others. 



Selby, Ont. 



Cellar Wlnterim of Bees— Adulteration. 



^yritten Jor the American Bee Journal 

 BY C. THEILMANX. 



Bees, so far in this vicinty, are in 

 good condition. The prospect now (Feb. 

 27th) is that very few will be lost in 

 wintering this year. I have heard of 

 very few that show any signs of diar- 

 rhea. I have not noticed a single spot 

 on mine, with the lowest (36^ to 37-^' 

 above) temperature for the past four 

 weeks in my cellars. I do not recollect 

 that the winter stores were so well 



