June 1, 1894.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



123 



Fig. 5. — Hind 

 leg of Humble 

 Bee. p, planta ; 

 .¥, spurs. 



shows, and we find instead, on the outer side, an apparatus 

 which can be used as pincers. The first joint of the foot 

 proper, ov planta, is very broad, as much so as the tibia 

 itself, and on the inner face it is furnished with rows of 

 hairs which give it a ridged appearance (see photograph 

 No. 3) ; outside it is quite smooth. Now the outer and 

 upper corner of this planta is excavated and broadened, so 

 that a spoon-shaped depression is formed, which faces the 

 outer angle of the tibia and is called the " auricle." The 

 edge of the tibia opposite the auricle bears a row of stiff 

 bristles, called collectively the " pecten " or comb (see 

 photographs 3 and 4). This apparatus of auricle and 

 comb is found only on the hind legs of 

 the worker bees, as will be seen by com- 

 paring the photographs of the worker's 

 (3) and queen's (5) feet. By these two 

 structures the waxen scales are seized as 

 they project from the abdomen and pulled 

 ofl:' ; they are then passed on to the front 

 pair of legs, by which they are held up to 

 the jaws to be masticated and mixed with 

 saliva. As a consequence of this treatment 

 the wax becomes ductile and plastic, and 

 can easily be moulded and shaved down 

 or excavated to the required shape. Be- 

 yond this point the scope of our paper 

 does not permit us to follow its history. 



^Yhen freshly built into combs, wax 



is generally of a pale yellow colour, but 



other shades are met with, and variations 



of this kind are due to the pollen which 



the bees have consumed in addition to 



the honey that forms the basis of the 



secretion. White pollen, such as that of the heather, 



has the effect of whitening the wax, while dark orange 



pollen intensifies its natural yellowness. 



The value of beeswax to man arises from its plasticity and 

 combustibility. Its uses are manifold, and many of them 

 may be traced back to a very remote antiquity. The 

 readiness with which wax receives impressions and the 

 accuracy with which, owing to its lack of elasticity, it 

 retains them, early led to its adoption as the most suitable 

 material for coating writing tablets, and the same pro- 

 perty made it a valuable adjunct of the law courts for 

 use either in the form of tablets or seals. In ancient 

 times it was also employed in the arts, as a medium for 

 the mixing of painters' colours. Pliny has left an 

 account of the method of its preparation for this purpose. 

 Ordinary beeswax was boiled three times in sea-water with 

 a small quantity of nitre, and by this means it was pm-ified 

 and bleached. After careful drying it was fit for mixing 

 with all kinds of colours, and was then called Punic wax. 

 When we try to form some idea of the quantity of wax 

 that must have been annually consumed in the ancient 

 world for such purposes as those mentioned above, as well 

 as for the many other uses to which it was put, it becomes 

 evident that we have in wax secretion an excellent illus- 

 tration of the wonderfully great total that can be reached 

 by accumulated littles. For, though individually each 

 wax scale as produced by the bees is a minute object no 

 larger than about one-fifteenth of an inch long by about 

 two-thirds as much in breadth, the gross amount produced 

 season by season to supply the needs of the ci\'ilized 

 world must have been very large, and must have necessi- 

 tated the formation of millions upon millions of wax 

 scales. And although some of its ancient uses have 

 become obsolete, others have taken their place, and wax 

 still remains to man a valuable product of insect agency, 

 and the labours of the bees are still of the utmoet impor- 



tance not only in the economy of Nature, but also in the 

 service of man. If we try to estimate the enormous 

 quantity annually consumed at the present day, in the 

 form of wax candles, in those countries in which the 

 burning of candles forms an essential part of all 

 ecclesiastical observances, and if we remember the great 

 disproportion that exists between the quantity of honey 

 consumed and that of wax secreted — the ratio being 

 sometimes as great as seventeen or eighteen to one, 

 as already mentioned— we see that for this purpose alone 

 there must be vast multitudes of bees hard at work day 

 after day, pilfering from the flowers of the hillsides, 

 gardens, and meadows of Europe that nectar which is to 

 serve as the raw material for so huge an amount of secreted 

 wax. And when we add to this the amount of honey that 

 is not devoured for wax secretion, but stored for future 

 use, and brought into the market before its conversion 

 into wax, we need no further evidence of the incredible 

 activity and industry which these small insects display, 

 and which have been the admiration of the world from 

 time immemorial. Their eagerness for gathering honey 

 indeed is so great that they become reckless and infatuated 

 in its pursuit. The following scene, described by Dr. 

 Langstroth, will illustrate this ; — " No one can understand 

 the extent of their infatuation until he has seen a con- 

 fectioner's shop assailed by myriads of hungry bees. I 

 have seen thousands strained out from the syrup in which 

 they had perished ; thousands more alighting even upon 

 the boiling sweets ; the floor covered, and windows 

 darkened with bees, some crawling, others flying, and 

 others still so completely besmeared as to be able neither 

 to crawl nor fly — not one in ten able to carry home its 

 ill-gotten spoils, and yet the air filled with new hoste of 

 thoughtless comers." 



The secretion of wax is not confined to the hive bee 

 amongst the Hymenoptera ; the humble bees also have 

 the power of producing a similar substance, although in 

 very inferior degree, since no definite comb is made, and 

 the wax is used only to strengthen the cocoons, and stop 

 up cracks and crevices in the roof. They differ from the 

 hive bee also in not bemg provided with wax-pockets. 

 The economy of these Bomhi is much less elaborate than 

 that of the hive bee ; they have, as it were, advanced less 

 far along the path of civilization, and are tiierefore satisfied 

 with more primitive and less refined arrangements, 

 especially in the accommodation of their larvm. Thus, 

 while the hive bee provides each of its grubs with a 

 separate cell in which to live and undergo its transforma- 

 tions, the Bomhi simply deposit their eggs here and there 

 on a shapeless heap of pollen, which constitutes the stored 

 provision of the establishment, and each larva as it hatches 

 begins to eat from the store immediately around it, thus 

 excavating a hollow which serves it as a cell. When the 

 larva is full fed, this is lined with sUk, and its walls may 

 then be strengthened with wax by the old bees. 

 [To be continued.) 



THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER. 



By J. J. Stewabt, B.A.Cantab., B.Sc.Lond. 

 (Continued from page 112.) 



IT becomes an interesting question whether moving 

 bodies, such as the earth in its course through 

 space, carry the ether with them or pass through it 

 without causing any motion of the ether in their 

 direction. Do the matter molecules drag the ether 

 along with them or not ? Dr. Young, to whom the 

 advance of the undulatory theory of light owed so much 



