American Bee Journal. 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WAGNER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



Vol. II. 



OOTOESEH, 1S60. 



No. 4. 



Memoir of Huber. 



The naturalist whose researches have been 

 specially directed to the instinct and opera- 

 tions of the domestic honeybee, will be strongly 

 disposed to regard the subject of this memoir as 

 at the very head of apiarian science, and his 

 writings as forming the safest and most useful 

 text-book. Multitudes have written on this 

 department of natural history, and have add- 

 ed more or less to a knowledge of what has 

 been a subject of investigation for ages. But 

 none, either in ancient or modern times, have 

 displayed so much sagacity of research as Fran- 

 cis Huber, nor so much patient perseverance 

 and accuracy of experiment, even admitting 

 some errors of minor importance detected by 

 succeeding observers. His success in discovery, 

 notwithstanding the singular difficulty he had 

 to struggle with, was proportioned to his dili- 

 gence and acuteness; and this difficulty arose, 

 uot from what some of his advocates have, in 

 their zeal in his defense against the sneers of 

 the sceptical, termed "imperfect vision," but 

 from total blindness. For, from the period when 

 he first applied himself in good earnest to in- 

 vestigate, the nature of his winged favorites, 

 external nature presented to his eyes one uni- 

 versal blank: 



"So thick a drop serene had quenched their orbs." 



It is not, therefore, without reason that his 

 friend and eulogist, De Candolle, asserts that 

 "nothing of any importance has been added to 

 the history of bees since his time; and natural- 

 ists of unimpaired vision have nothing of con- 

 sequence to subjoin to the observations of a 

 brother who was deprived of sight." 



Francis Hubek was born at Geneva on the 

 3<.l of July, 1750. His father possessed a decided 

 tuste for subjects of natural science; the sou in- 

 lieritcd \\w taste of liis father; and, even in his 

 boyish days, pursued his fixvorite studies with 

 such intense ardor as materially to injure his 

 health, and bring on that weakness iuhis visual 

 organs which eventually ended in total blind- 

 ness. His attention had been led to what be- 

 came his favorite — and indeed his sole and en- 



grossing study, the habits and economy of the 

 honey bee, by his admiration of the writings of 

 Reaumur, and, above all, by his acquaintance 

 with Bonnet, the illustrious author of the "Con- 

 templations of Nature," who quickly discerned 

 the intelligence and penetration of his young 

 friend, and who kindly and strongly encouraged 

 him in his peculiar researches. It is singular 

 enough that these two distinguished naturalists 

 and friends should both have labored under a 

 similar personal defect, occasioned, too, by the 

 same causes; for the-same intenseness and mi- 

 nuteness of observation which deprived Huber 

 of sight altogether, had brought on in Bonnet a 

 weakness of vision which for a time threatened 

 total blindness, and from which he never fully 

 recovered. 



It will readily occur to every one that the loss 

 of sight in Huber must not only have presented 

 a very serious obstacle to the successful study 

 of his favorite science, but must have had the 

 effect, also, of throwing considerable doubt on 

 the accuracy of his experiments and the reality 

 of his discoveries. His most devoted admirers 

 and most unhesitating followers in every thing 

 connected with the economy of bees, are bound 

 in candor to acknowledge that his observations, 

 reported, as they were, as second-hand, and de- 

 pending for their accuracy on the intelligence 

 and fidelity of a half-educated assistant, were 

 of themselves not entitled to be received with- 

 out caution and distrust. Francis Burnens, his 

 assistant, had no doubt entered with enthusiasm 

 into the pursuits, and appears to have conduct- 

 ed the experiments not only with the most pa- 

 tient assiduity, but with great address and no 

 small share of steadiness and courage — quali- 

 ties indispensable in those who take liberties 

 with the genus irritabile apum. Still, Burnens 

 was but an uncultivated peasant when he be- 

 came Huber's hired servant, and possessed none 

 of those acquired accomplishments which serve 

 to sharpen the intellectual faculties, and fit the 

 mind for observing and discriminating with 

 correctness. It cannot reasonably excite our 

 wonder, therefore, that on the first appearance 

 of Huber's observations, the literary, or rather 

 the scientific world, was somewhat startled, not 



