332 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



their neighbors were going through the 

 same motions. Display this prancing 

 crowd but once a year, respected Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, and we will not ask for 

 a joke department. Thus, Dr. Brown, 

 who certainly should have the prize as 

 the champion high kicker, says, "These 

 questions more particularly concern the 

 ethereal [sic] biological, metaphysical 

 [sic] and theosophical [sic .'] minded bee- 

 keeper than the real honey producer." 

 And doctor Miller throws this sop to the 

 Philistines: " 2. and 3. I don't believe we 

 better [sic the purist] fool with such 

 things this side of the water. Wait till 

 they settle it in Germany. ' ' Beg pardon, 

 doctor, but that remark is just talkee, 

 talkee. Have we not recently been edi- 

 fied by an instructive discussion on stings 

 and spiracles ? And are Americans less 

 scientifically built than Germans ? Shades 

 of Gray and Cope ! And this brings to 

 light a startling omission. No Straw has 

 yet appeared, showing the utter folly of 

 printing such articles as those of Mr. 

 Crane on heredity. And why was not 

 Mr. Heddon used as a floor-mop when he 

 went back to evolution to support his non- 

 swarming plans? Hasty, too, and Aikin, 

 and several others, have dared to go back 

 to first principles in discussing the swarm- 

 ing question. Decidedly, bee-literature 

 needs renovating. Mr. J. A. Stone re- 

 marks "4. By the instinct that God has 

 given them — and in no other way;" and 

 a number of others refer to "instinct," 

 apparently under the impression that 

 they are explaining something. "In- 

 stinct" has long been recognized as a 

 mere name, or device, by which to refer 

 to certain phenomena for the sake of con- 

 venience. This class of authorities has 

 scant sympathy with Lear's attitude — 

 "First let me talk with this philosopher. 

 What is the cause of thunder?" — but let 

 them beware lest some Franklin arise to 

 discomfit them and preserve his reputa- 

 tion for piety at the same time. As to the 

 importance of discussion, a reference to 

 the swarming problem alone ought to 

 suflSce, let alone that of breeding. There 



are two methods of discovery — one em- 

 pirical, one rational. Edison's work 

 shows the equal importance of both. To 

 ignore either one means the expenditure 

 of much fruitless labor. 



Most of those who replied to the first 

 question were satisfied with empiricism; 

 but Mr. R. L. Taylor, in addition, has 

 favored us with a theory, as follows: 

 "When a colony realizes that it may soon 

 be necessary to rear a new queen, it is 

 anxious first to provide drones and so 

 builds drone-comb." If this means any- 

 thing, it means anthropomorphism — hu- 

 man standards and motives. A drone, 

 then, is the very incarnation of knightly 

 valor. If the workers foresee, why may 

 not the drone foresee too ? Yet out he 

 goes to find a queen, though his success 

 means his death. A cow in heat merely 

 indicates thereby that she is anxious to 

 do her part in preserving the species; etc. 

 Delightful simplicity of the universe ! 



Die Deutsche Bienenzucht in The- 

 ORiE UND Praxis. — "German Bee-Cul- 

 ture in Theory and Practice" — so runs 

 the full title of the paper published and 

 edited by the author and promoter of the 

 theor}' of the "organic conception of the 

 colony," Pastor J, Gerstung, of Ossmann- 

 stedt, Thueringen, Germany. From a 

 reading of this paper I infer that Ger- 

 stung would probably answer the first 

 and fourth questions by saying that one 

 colony builds more drone-comb than 

 another, or part drone and part worker 

 comb, or secretes different kinds of brood 

 food, for reasons precisely analogous to 

 those implied in the words "First the 

 blade, then the ear, then the full corn in 

 the ear' ' — an orderly succession of phys- 

 iological conditions as those of simple 

 growth, the existence of which entitles 

 the colony as a whole to the designation 

 "organism." The reaction of these con- 

 ditions he calls "impulses," such as the 

 building impulse, the drone-rearing im- 

 pulse, the swarming (reproductive) im- 

 pulse, etc., each occuring when the need 

 for it exists. That which we blindly call 

 "instinct" is thus physiological, just as a 



