AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



435 



of Baron von Berlepsch and Dzierzon 

 were equally fruitless, notwithstanding 

 these writers quote a great number of 

 authors in their books." 



Sir John Lubbock says, "I doubt 

 whether bees are in the least fond of one 

 another. I have not been able to dis- 

 cover any evidence of affection among 

 them. They appear to be thoroughly 

 callous, and utterly indifferent to one 

 another." 



TRADITIONS (?) AMONG BEES. 



Prof. E. tells us that the bees that 

 suffered the supposed wrong never for- 

 got it, and communicated their feelings 

 to their descendants by way of tradi- 

 tion (!). If communicated at all it was 

 by tradition, for the bees that did the 



possibly affect the males and fertile 

 females, which alone leave descendants. 

 I am surprised that no one has hitherto 

 advanced this demonstrative case of 

 neuter insects, against the well-known 

 doctrine of inherited habit as advanced 

 by La Marck." 



I know of no more fitting language to 

 apply to these statements of Prof. 

 Evans', in closing this long article, than 

 that which the Professor himself has 

 furnished us, in the early part of his 

 article, in speaking of the positions of 

 the late Prof. Von Prautl, "The weak 

 point of these speculations is, they are 

 too exclusively metaphysical, constitut- 

 ing a logical and systematic exposition 

 of conception, or notions without that 

 accurate and exhaustive observation of 



California State Building at the World's Columbian Exposition, in 1893. 



stinging were all dead in two months at 

 most, if it was in early spring, and they 

 did not live more than six months at 

 best. 



Then, again, they never had any pos- 

 terity to which they could transmit this 

 ill-feeling, for the queen that laid all the 

 eggs, from which the future inhabitants 

 of the hive were hatched, knew nothing 

 of the stinging unless the worker-bees 

 told her about it. Then in order to hand 

 it down, even as a tradition, it would be 

 necessary for her to tell the young bees 

 and queens about it as they came into 

 the world, and thus it would go down 

 from generation to generation. This 

 seems quite " fishy " to an ordinary mor- 

 tal, but it may be good science in the 

 country where Prof. Evans lives. 



So far as the transmission of tenden- 

 cies in the bee-hive is concerned, Darwin 

 settled the matter a long time ago. He 

 says, "Peculiar habits confined to the 

 workers, or sterile females, however 

 long they might be followed, could not 



facts which acuteness of analysis and no 

 vigorous process of pure thinking can 

 supply. Prautl," he says, " is ignorant 

 of the habits and aptitudes of ani- 

 mals." 



So far as bees are concerned, Prof. 

 Evans seems to be suffering from an 

 attack of the same disease. 



St. Joseph, Mo. 



Bee-Questions ly a Beginner. 



E. S. MILES. 



Last spring I got a swarm of bees in 

 the woods, by taking a portion of the 

 tree. The next day they swarmed out. 

 We caught and hived them in a mov- 

 able-frame hive. The next day after, 

 they swarmed out of that, and we hived 

 them again, and put a queen and drone 

 trap on. They swarmed out a couple 

 of times after that (leaving the queen — 



