146 THE UNIVERSE. 



this in the form of little fillets, and deposit all round it a 

 thick solid layer, which preserves it from putrefaction. 



After seeing so many ingenious combinations, who would 

 be tempted, with Malebrariche and the upholders of the 

 scholastic philosophy, to look upon the insect as an automa- 

 ton, necessarily destined to accomplish only a series of acts 

 adapted to its mechanism ? We are here far beyond the 

 flute-player of Vaucanson and his famous mechanical duck, 

 which ate and digested its food in presence of the spec- 

 tators. 



But the same bees display under different circumstances, 

 if not as much art, at least as much finesse If, instead of 

 a soft slug, vulnerable on all sides, a cuirassed shell-snail 

 violate the asylum of the republic, a totally different result 

 ensues. As soon as the swarm begins to attack it, the mol- 

 lusc entrenches itself within its shell, fixes it to the ground, 

 and is then proof against all aggression. Nevertheless, as 

 the presence of an enemy so well fenced in gives them some 

 uneasiness, and as they cannot slay it, they fasten it to the 

 spot. The workers deposit all round its shell a solid frame 

 of resinous matter (propolis), which glues it firmly to the 

 hive. The enemy must then necessarily die in his lair, for 

 all movement, all escape, is henceforth impossible. 



Reaumur discovered a snail cemented in this way to the 

 glass of one of his experimental hives, into which it had 

 imprudently penetrated ; and I myself have seen another 

 such prisoner in the same condition. 



Do not such facts prove a certain foresight? Could blind 

 instinct bring them about, and who could venture to refer 

 them to mere mechanical action ? 



