356 ON THE FORM OF BEES CELLS. 



est egal a Tangle aigu du rhombe de la base, et Tangle obtus 



du m6me rhombe e*gal a Tangle obtus du trapeze. 7 



****** 



* Outre ces avantages qui viennent du c6te de la figure de 

 la base, il y en a encore qui dependent de la quantite des angles 

 des rhombes ; c'est de leur grandeur que depend celle des angles 

 des trapezes, qui forment les six cdtes de T Alveole ; or on trouve 

 que les angles aigus des rhombes, e*tant de 70 degrds 32 mi- 

 nutes et les obtus de 109 degre*s 28 minutes, ceux des trapezes 

 qui leur sont contigus doivent tre aussi de la me me grandeur/ 



The l etant' in the last sentence is plainly the prothesis 

 of a hypothetical proposition, if they are &c. then so and so. 



The best part of Lord Brougham's essay is his argument 

 against the theory contained in the Article on Bees in the 

 Penny Cyclopaedia, though rightly or wrongly, he has deprived 

 himself of the fatal objection to this theory furnished by Bar- 

 clay's observation of the doubleness of the walls. 



A system of associated cells has many curious properties. 

 The following may perhaps not have been noticed. Round each 

 corner which is not an apex of any cell, the apices are arranged 

 in groups of 6 at 6 of the corners of a cube of which the first- 

 named point is the centre, and each apex belongs to three such 

 groups. 



The peculiar difficulty as to the instinct shown by bees is 

 this, that one does not see how they perceive when the true form 

 of their cell is attained. In common cases of instinct, though the 

 impulse is mysterious, one sees how the animal knows that its 

 end has been obtained : not so in this case. The following is 

 my guess. Beside the complex eyes of bees, they have three 

 single eyes placed lower down, and probably serving for the 

 vision of near objects. Assume that the axes of these eyes di- 

 verge so as to be respectively normal to three ideal planes form- 

 ing a solid angle, each dihedral angle of which is of 120 

 degrees. Geometry shows that every solid angle of the bee's 

 cell is precisely similar to this type, so that a bee looking at it 

 with his three single eyes, might have direct vision with each 

 eye, of one of the three planes of the solid angle. This direct 

 vision may correspond to a particular sensation, so that a bee is 

 not satisfied till it is attained. If we had three eyes, the axes 

 mutually at right angles, we should, I think, be well able to 



