ANIMAL CHEMISTRY. 

 NOTE (16,) b, P- 32. 



COMPOSITION OF 



NOTE (17,) p. 32 



COMPOSITION OF CANE SUGAR. 



According to 

 Be^eliu, Prout. W. Crum. LieLig. < 



Carbon 42-225 42-86 42-14 42-301 42-47 42-58 



Hydrogen 6-600 6-35 6-42 6-384 6-90 ' 6-37 

 Oxygen 51-175 50-79 51-44 51-315 50-63 51-05 

 Foi the composition of gum and of starch, see Notes (14) and (11) 



NOTE (18,) p. 32. 



COMPOSITION OF CHOLESTERINE. 



According to 



Chevreul. a Couerbe. 6 Marchand. Calculated 

 C36H32O. 



Carbon - . . 85-095 84-895 84-90 84-641 

 Hydrogen . 11-880 12-099 12-00 12-282 

 Oxygen . . 3-025 3-006 3-10 3-077 

 a Recherches sur les Corps Gras, p. 185. b Ann. de Ch. et de Phys. LVL, p. 164, 



NOTE (19,) p. 33. 



THE PRODUCTION OF WAX FROM SUGAR.* 



As soon as the bees have filled their stomach, or what is called the honey bladder, witfl, 

 honey, and cannot deposit it for want of cells, the honey passes gradually in large quan- 

 tity into the intestinal canal, where it is digested. The greater part is expelled as excre 

 ment ; the rest enters the fluids of the bee. In consequence of this great flow of juices 

 a fatty substance is produced, which oozes out on the eight spots formerly mentioned, 

 which occur on the four lower Scales of the abdominal rings, and soon nardens into 

 laminae of wax. On the other hand, when the bees can deposit their honey, only so much 

 enters the intestinal canal as is necessary for their support. The honey bladder need not 

 be filled with honey longer than forty hours in order to bring to maturity, on the eight 

 spots, eight lamina? of wax, so that the latter fall off. I made the experiment of giving 

 to bees, which I had enclosed in a box with their queen about the end of September, dis- 

 solved sugar candy instead of honey. Out of this food laminae of wax were formed; but 

 these would not separate and fall off readily, so that the mass, which continued to ooze 

 out, remained, in most of the bees, hanging to the upper laminae : and the laminae of wax 

 became as thick as four under ordinary circumstances. The abdominal scales of the bees 

 were, by means of the wax, distinctly raised, so that the waxen laminae projected between 

 them. On examination, I found that these thick laminae, which under the microscope 

 exhibited several lamellae, had a sloping surface downwards near the head, and upwards 

 in the vicinity of the tail. The first waxen laminae, therefore, must have been pushed 

 downwards by the second, because, where the abdominal scales are attached to the skin, 

 there is no space for two laminae, the second by the third, and thus the inclined surfaces 

 on the sides of the thick laminae had been produced. I saw distinctly from this, that the 

 first formed laminae are detached by those which followed. The sugar had been converted 

 into wax by the bees, but it would seem that there was some imperfection in the process, 

 as the laminae did not fall off, but adhered to the succeeding ones. 



In order to produce wax in the manner described, the bees require no pollen, but only 

 honey. I have placed, even in October, bees in an empty hive, and fed them with honey ; 

 they soon formed comb, although the weather was such that they could not leave the 

 hive. I cannot, therefore, believe that pollen furnishes food for the bees, but I think they 

 only swallow it, in order, by mixing it with honey and water, to prepare the liquid food 

 for the grubs. Besides, bees often starve in April, when their stock of honey is con- 

 sumed, and when they can obtain in the fields abundance of pollen, but no honey. 



* From F. W. Gundlach's Natural History of Bees, p. 115. Cassel, 1842 We are acquainted 

 with no more beautiful or convincing proof of the formation of fatty matter from sugar than the fol- 

 lowing process of the manufacture of wax by the bees, as taken from observation. 



