364 BEES-WAX. 



flakes. " One or more bees," he remarks, " may 

 be often seen before the door of the hive, sup- 

 porting themselves by their two fore feet, flutter- 

 ing their wings, and agitating the hind parts of 

 their bodies. They are then evidently moulding 

 the wax between their abdominal scales, the motion 

 of the wings serving to preserve their balance, and 

 as a signal for their companions within to come 

 and carry off the falling flakes." In the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions for 1807, MR. KNIGHT states 

 that there is no such secretory process ; that the 

 wax is laid on the scales of the abdomen for the 

 convenience of carriage, and to receive warmth 

 preparatory to cell-building. 



To complete the evidence however, to me so 

 irresistible, in favour of the wax-secreting faculty 

 of the bee's body, I observe finally, that in 1793, 

 M. Huber's observations led him to the same 

 conclusion as Mr. Hunter's, relative to the nature 

 of the laminae under the abdominal scales : but 

 Huber slumbered not there, he prosecuted the 

 inquiry more successfully than any preceding na- 

 turalist, and at length demonstrated the secreting 

 organs which had eluded the scrutiny of Swam- 

 merdam, Hunter, and other acute anatomists. 

 He found that these laminae were contained 

 in distinct receptacles, on each side of the 

 middle process of the scales ; he examined with 

 great care the form and structure of these se- 



