434 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



in the same way, and with the same 

 mathematical exactness that they did 

 ten thousand years ago. They gather 

 pollen, honey and propolis, and perform 

 all the economy of the hive in the nine- 

 teenth century exactly as they did in the 

 morning of creation, when they first 

 evoluted into bees, or were created full- 

 fledged and perfect — I do not care which 

 theory you hold ; the fact remains that 

 they are to-day where they began as 

 bees, and history records no change in 

 the "memory of man," or any other 

 time. Darwin knew this, and therefore 

 he said, " The " hive-bee is the least 

 variable of all domestic animals." 



The Professor also rehashes an old 

 story, which is known among bee-keep- 

 ers as the "Wiley lie." I refer to his 

 statement about "manufactured comb." 

 This has gone the rounds of the papers 

 of the country so long, and has been 

 denied and proven to be false so many 

 times, that it greatly surprises one that 

 a man of any reputation would repeat 

 it, or a well-known and popular journal 

 like the Atlantic Monthly publish it. In 

 the name of thousands of honest, earn- 

 est, and industrious bee-keepers, I want 

 to protest against this statement being 

 repeated again, and I trust you may 

 think proper to give the denial as wide 

 a circulation as you have given the false 

 statement. 



Permit me to call your attention to the 

 inclosed article which appeared in the 

 Popular Science Monthly for May. 



NONSENSICAL "SCIENTIFIC" EFFUSIONS. 



The Professor's effusions about " bee 

 communities relapsing into barbarism," 

 "barricading the entrance of their 

 hives;" also "making of deep, narrow 

 gateways," etc., sound like the poetical 

 dreamings of a half-educated savage, 

 and make one think of the science, so- 

 called, and literature of the Dark Ages. 

 There is a good deal of imagination and 

 very little truth in them, therefore, they 

 do not deserve a place in the literature 

 of this age of facts and figures. 



Had he ceased to draw upon his imagi- 

 nation here, he might have been ex- 

 cused on the plea that he was trying to 

 write a poetical prose ; but he gives the 

 wings of his imagination full liberty, 

 and takes still higher flights than any 

 at which I have hinted. Witness the 

 following : 



THE MOTHER-HIVE AND HER COLONIES. 



" It is undeniable that, in the life of 

 the honey-bee, a sort of historical con- 

 nection exists between the mother-hive 



and her colonies. This sense of kinship 

 extends to the colonies of colonies, and 

 thus gives rise to something like inter- 

 national relations between a large num- 

 ber of apian communities, which share 

 the friendships and hatreds of the origi- 

 nal stock, and transmit to their pos- 

 terity." 



Lenz, he tells us, relates his experi- 

 ence on this point. Some of his hives 

 being blown down by the wind, he hast- 

 ened to set them up. The bees saw him 

 thus engaged, and, regarding him as the 

 cause of the disaster, stung him. For 

 years afterward they pursued him when- 

 ever he approached the hives. This un- 

 just antipathy was inherited by all the 

 swarms which issued from these hives, 

 and formed colonies elsewhere. 



It is wonderful how much use this 

 learned savant has made of this little 

 accumulation of what he evidently sup- 

 poses to be facts. He probably sold it 

 to the Popular Science Monthly for so 

 much a line, and, no doubt, drew upon 

 you for a like sum ; and, for all I know, 

 he may still be sending it out to noted 

 journals for such pay as his reputation 

 will command, on its mission of enlight- 

 ening the earth. Yet, there is not even 

 a shadow of truth in it. 



In three days after a swarm has issued 

 from the hive, should one of the bees 

 belonging to it return to the parent 

 colony and attempt to enter the hive 

 with a view of helping herself to the 

 honey, some of which she had gathered, 

 she would be immediately informed that 

 she had no rights there. Should she 

 persist in her attempts to enter the hive, 

 she would be severely chastised, if not 

 killed outright. 



Lenz, to whom the Professor refers, 

 may be authority on some things, but I 

 do not hesitate to say that he is not au- 

 thority on the habits of bees. 1 sub- 

 mitted the question of the authority of 

 Lenz and Wundt (whom Prof. Evans 

 quotes as backing up his extraordinary 

 statements), to one of the ablest living 

 writers on the subject of practical bee- 

 culture, and a man well posted and 

 thoroughly acquainted with all the lit- 

 erature extant on the subject. He re- 

 plied : 



"I went to my library and opened 

 Bastian, whose book contains a biblio- 

 graphy of the authors of bee-culture, 

 with the title of their works since 1568, 

 to find the names of Lenz and Wundt, 

 but Bastian did not mention them, al- 

 though his bibliography contains the 

 names of more than 400 bee-writers. 

 My researches," he says, "in the books 



