46 LIFE OF TEGETMEIER 



" Tegetmeier succeeded in arranging such con- 

 ditions as to induce a honey-bee to construct a 

 single detached cell, and that cell was cylindrical. 

 As six is the number of cylinders which can be 

 placed round a seventh of equal size, all in 

 contact with one another, the inference was 

 obviously that originally honeycomb was com- 

 posed in this manner, and that the hexagonal 

 form had been attained by the flattening together 

 of the convex surfaces, in a transition which 

 did not necessarilv involve any familiaritv with 

 the principles of geometry." In short, the bees 

 make the cells cylindrical and the pressure of 

 circumstances (or the circumstance of pressure) 

 makes them six-sided. Apiarists and students 

 need hardly, I suppose, be reminded that the 

 theory whose truth Tegetmeier demonstrated had 

 previously been formulated by Buffon ; but the 

 French naturalist had failed to prove his point 

 by actual demonstration, and his theory was 

 held in scorn bjr the upholders of the geometrical 

 formation of their cells by bees. Buffon endea- 

 voured to explain the hexagonal form of the 

 cells by the uniform pressure of a great number 

 of bees all working at the same time, exerted 

 equally in all directions in a limited space. He 

 illustrated his theory by supposing a number of 

 similar cylinders compressed together, and taking 

 the form of hexagonal prisms by the uniform 

 expansion of each cell. Undoubtedly Buffon was 



