298 PHYSIOLOGY. 



weak : it had nevertheless sent off a swarm the 

 year previous. There is an instance or two on 

 record, of one family having continued in the 

 same hive for thirty years. One of these is 

 mentioned by REAUMUR, another by MOUFFET. 

 THORLEY speaks of a colony having occupied 

 the same domicile for 110 years. The spot chosen 

 was under the leads of the study of LUDOVICUS 

 VIVES in Oxford : the original swarm settled there 

 in 1520 and kept possession till 1630. Query, 

 may not the bees when the combs become very old 

 and the cells much diminished in size, remove them 

 and construct fresh ones ? To those who may 

 wish for their own satisfaction to examine the 

 linings of a brood cell, I would observe, that MR. 

 HUNTER'S mode of proceeding was, to soak the 

 cell in water, till the linings were swelled, when 

 he had no difficulty in separating and counting 

 them : he found them separate most readily at the 

 bottom, on account of the inclosed excrement. 



To common observers it might appear, that 

 the lives of the bees were coeval with the foun- 

 dation of the colony, presuming upon all the young 

 bees leaving the parent stock in swarms. But I 

 have already stated that all swarms consist of a 

 mixture of young and old bees ; the difference 

 between them is very distinguishable, those of the 

 present year being brown, plump, and clothed 



