244 PARTHENOGENESIS VII 



generative organs of tlie two principal cases studied 

 (Polistes and Apus), containing new facts. His 

 method is however eminently experimental, and 

 appears to us a striking contradiction of a very 

 superficial classification of the sciences, which is 

 favoured sometimes by men of science unacquainted 

 with the methods or problems of biology : we mean 

 the division into the exact or mathematical, the 

 experimental, and the classificatory sciences, in which 

 last division the so-called natural history sciences are 

 said to find their place. 



The experiments w^hich Siebold made on bees and 

 wasps, though performed by a naturalist, are as nicely 

 controlled, and as clear in the conclusions Avhich they 

 give, as any performed by exact physicists on the 

 times or quantities concerned in this or that physical 

 process. The style in wdiicli details of these investiga- 

 tions are communicated is one rare at the j)resent day 

 in biological works, where minute description of 

 structure, or of the apparatus devised for a physiologi- 

 cal research, form the staple. Here w^e are treated to 

 a leisurely narrative of some years of patient w^ork ; 

 we share the keen enjoyment of the author as he 

 becomes acquainted wdth the marvellous intelligence 

 of his w^asps and their various proceedings — we feel 

 his satisfaction in overcoming the difiiculties of pro- 

 curing and observing the necessary material, and 

 admire the candour and thoroughness with which 

 he handles the question before him. 



Before proceeding to a short notice of the contents 

 of Von Siebold's book, it will be well to give a brief 



