BEE QUEEN-MAKING. 103 



the sacrifice of those adjacent, is converted into a spacious 

 chamber allowing full scope for her bodily expansion; and 

 soon will numerous nurses be busy, cramming her with that 

 nutritious stimulating substance called "royal jelly." Then 

 in due season, in ten days or thereabouts, out will come an 

 artificial sovereign, in all respects as good as ever issued from 

 a royal egg. 



The above curious process of conversion, though supposed 

 to have been known to the ancients, was first published by 

 Schirach (a French naturalist) in his history of " La Reine des 

 Abeilles." Although the fact was ascertained by careful ex- 

 periment, its assertors were for a long time laughed at, and 

 even abused, in one case, by an opponent who, though he saw 

 nothing incredible in the conversion of plants into animals, 

 deemed it the height of absurdity that the nature of an animal 

 should admit of change. 1 



1 Needham, Insect Manufacture, p. 313. 



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