The Life of the Bee 



work, begun in the dazzling sunshine, 

 receives its crown in the darkness. To 

 be comprehensive, one should mention 

 also the somewhat subsequent works and 

 investigations of Charles Bonnet and 

 Schirach (who solved the enigma of the 

 royal egg) ; but I will keep to the broad 

 lines, and pass at once to Fra^ois Huber, 

 the master and classic of contemporary 

 apiarian science. 



Huber was born in Geneva in 1750, 

 and fell blind in his earliest youth. The 

 experiments of Reaumur interested him ; 

 he sought to verify them, and soon be- 

 coming passionately absorbed in these 

 researches, eventually, with the assist- 

 ance of an intelligent and faithful servant, 

 Fran9ois Burnens, devoted his entire life 

 to the study of the bee. In the annals 

 of human suffering and human triumph 

 there is nothing more touching, no lesson 

 more admirable, than the story of this 



