or NATURAL HISTORY. 353 



of a queen, had always happened to contain one of thefe roy- 

 al eggs, or rather one of the worms proceeding from them. 

 But this objection was afterwards removed by many other 

 accurate experiments, the refults of which were uniformly 

 the fame ; and the objecStors to Mr. Debraw's difcovery can^ 

 didly admit, that, when the community ftands- in need of a 

 queen, the working-bees poflefs the power of railing a com- 

 mon fubjecl to the throne ; and that every worm of the hive 

 is capable, under a certain courfe of management, of becom- 

 ing the mother of a numerous progeny. This metamorpho- 

 fis feems to be chiefly accomplifhed by a peculiar nourilli- 

 ment carefully adminiftered to the worm by the working- 

 bees, by which, and perhaps by other unknown means, the 

 female organs, the germs of which previoufly exifted in the 

 embryo, are expanded, and all thofe differences in form and 

 fize, that fo remarkably diftinguifh the queen from the work- 

 ing-bees, are produced. 



It is always a fortunate circumftance when difcoveries, 

 which at firft feem calculated folely to gratify curiolity, are 

 capable of being turned to the advantage of fociety. Mr. 

 Debraw, accordingly, has not failed to point out the advan- 

 tages that may be derived from his refearches into the oecon- 

 omy and nature of bees. By his difcovery, we are taught 

 an eafy mode of multiplying, without end, fwarms, or new 

 colonies, of thefe ufeful infe(Sls. Befide the great increafe 

 of honey, if this difcovery were fufficlently attended to, con- 

 fiderable funis annually expended in importing wax into this 

 kingdom from the Continent might be faved. The pradlice 

 of this new art, Mr. Schirach informs us, has already extend- 

 ed itfelf through Upper Lufatia, the Palatinate, Bohemia, 

 Bavaria, Silefia, and Poland. In fome of thefe countries, it 

 has excited the attention, and acquired the patronage of gov- 

 ernment. The Emprefs of Ruflia, who never lofes fight of 

 a fingle article by which the induftry, and, of courfe, the 



