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sects are conscious of vibrations, which 

 with us cause sound, I think no ob- 

 serving person can doubt Every 



apiarist has noticed the eflfect of va- 

 rious sounds made by the bees upon 

 their comratles of tlio liive, and how 

 contagions is tlie sharp note of anger, 

 the low hum of fear, and the pleasant 

 tone of a new swarm as, they com- 

 mence to enter their new home. Now, 

 whether insects take note of their 

 vibrations as we recognize pitch, or 

 whether they just distinguish the 

 tremor, I think no one knows. There, 

 is some reason to believe that their 

 delicate touch-organs may enable them 

 to discriminate between vibrations 

 even more acutely than can we by the 

 use of our ears. A slight jar will 

 quickly awaken a colony of hybrids, 

 while aloud noise will pass unnoticed. 

 If insects can appreciate with great 

 delicacy the diiicrent vibratoi-y condi- 

 tions of the air by an excessive devel- 

 opment of the sense of touch, then un- 

 doubtedl}' the antennffi ma}' be great 

 aids. Dr. Clemens thought that in- 

 sects could only detect atmospheric 

 vibrations. So, too, thought Liuneus 

 and Brnnet. From our present knowl- 

 edge this view seems the most reason- 

 able one, for nothing answering in 

 the least to ears, structuralh, has yet 

 been discovered." 



We are ourselves inclined to the 

 same view, and do not see anj' reason 

 why bees should not be sensible to 

 vibrations which produce no efl'eet upon 

 us. Onr ear is so fashioned that it is 

 sensible to vibrations reaching at the 

 outside to 88,000 in a second. The 

 sensation of red is produced when -t70 

 millions of millions of vibrations enter 

 the eye in a similar time. But be- 

 tween these two numbers vibrations 

 produce on us only the sensation of 

 heat, for we have no special organs 

 adapted to them. There is, therefore, 

 no reason why bees shoidd not be sen- 

 sible to vibrations even with their 

 touch-organs which do not afl'ect us. 



We have examined the antenna; re- 

 peatedly with the microscope, both 

 superficially and section by section ; 

 and although using instruments sec- 

 ond to none in efficiency, we have 

 failed to trace any connection between 

 the organs described by Graber and 

 Mayer and an auditory apparatus. The 

 title of (iraber's work above referred 

 to, is UOer neuc otocyslennrlige Sinncsor- 

 t/ane der Tn.ieclen, lS7if ; and Mayer's, 

 Sopra ccrti organi di senso ncllc An- 

 tennc dci DiUeri, 1878. 



In describing the compound eyes. 

 Prof. Cook gives illustrations from 

 Gegenbower, but we think they do not 

 give such a good idea of the structure 

 of the eye as those of Grenacher, 

 copied by Cheshire, and introduced on 

 Plate IV. of his book. We have a 



very beautiful, uniijne microscopic sec- 

 tion of the eye, showing the disposi- 

 tion of the rods, and the decussating 

 nerve fibrils, corroborating Grena- 

 dier's views, and showing the accuracy 

 of his drawings. When we were stay- 

 ing at the College, we showed this 

 preparation to the students of Prof. 

 Cook's class, and they were astonished 

 at the beauty of the structure of this 

 organ. 



Prof. Cook does not hold the view of 

 a mosaic vision, which, he sajs, " is 

 now abandoned," but thinks the philos- 

 ophy of sight in insects is rather like 

 that of higher animals, except thou- 

 sands of eyes instead of two are used 

 as one. Although their sense of color 

 is very keen, our author believes 

 " more has been made of this matter 

 of color than truth will warrant." We 

 think so, too, and believe that the ex- 

 periments of Sir John Lubbock go to 

 prove, not that bees prefer one color 

 to another, but that they can be accus- 

 tomed to recognize a certain color. 



There is much worthy of study in 

 this part of the chapter which refers 

 to organs common to most insects, but 

 we have not the space to go through 

 them as carefully as we vvould wish, or 

 as the work deserves. The second 

 part of the chapter refers more par- 

 ticularly to the honey-bee. Referring 

 to food given to queens and drones, he 

 says Schiemenz and Schonfeld are un- 

 questionably correct in the belief that 

 they are fed by the workers the same 

 food that the larvre are fed, and rea- 

 sons from the fact that, as he finds the 

 queen lays over 3,000 eggs a day 

 weighing 3,900 grams, while she her- 

 self only weighs 2.299 grams, for her 

 to be in a position to lay nearly double 

 her weight daily can only be possible 

 because she is fed with highly nutri- 

 tious food, which was wholly digested 

 for her. Schonfeld found that the 

 queen, like the drones, will soon die 

 if shut away from the workers by a 

 double wire cage, even though they 

 have access to honey. 



One of the most interesting para- 

 graphs in this chapter is that referring 

 to the glandular organs, which we find 

 very well explained both as regards 

 their structure and functions. Ram- 

 dohr, in 1811, discovered a pair of 

 salivary glands in the thorax, and two 

 other pairs were discovered by Meckel 

 in 184(i. These have been fully de- 

 scribed by Siebold. Their functions 

 are well known. Still Cheshire says 

 on page 72, "and yet dense ignorance 

 respecting them is common to the 

 present day, even such an accom- 

 plished German a)iicnlturist as Ber- 

 lepseh failing to mention them." Had 

 Cheshire looked at page 136 of Die 

 Biciie, by Berlepsch, he would have 

 I found that not only does this distin- 



guished German mention them, but 

 that he also describes their functions. 

 Schiemenz goes into the nuitter very 

 carefully, and in an elaborate mono- 

 graph, beautifully illustrated, he en- 

 deavors to show that they produce a 

 secretion which is the food of the 

 larvffi and queens. This view has been 

 proved to be incorrect, and Schonfeld 

 has fully demonstrated that the food 

 of the larva; is, as Dufour first pointed 

 out, digested by the workers. More- 

 over, any doubt as to this being the 

 case has been removed by the experi- 

 ments of Dr. A. de Planta, who shows 

 that the chyle food of the queen, 

 drone and worker larvce varies. Prof. 

 Cook explains this very clearly, and 

 then goes on to treat of the honey- 

 stomach with its four-lipped mouth, 

 and shows how the bee can either feed 

 herself or store honey at will. 



We ourselves do not believe that the 

 glands supply the larval food exclu- 

 sively, although we think that secre- 

 tion from these is added to the chyle 

 food given tliem. Also, why do the 

 queen and drones have glands ? for if 

 they get food as a secretion they do 

 not want them. 



This is how Prof. Cook sums up the 

 matter : " Before leaving the subject, 

 it seems well to remark that it would 

 appear that the old view of Dufour, so 

 alily advocated by Pastor Schonfeld, 

 is, despite the arguments and re- 

 searches of Schiemenz, the correct 

 one. The queen, drone and larvte do 

 not get this food as a secretion — a sort 

 of milk — but it is rather the digested 

 pollen or chyle modified, as the bees 

 desire, by varying their own food. In 

 addition to this albuminous food the 

 ([ueen and drones also take much 

 honey ; thus they need the glands 

 which furnish the ferment that changes 

 cane to reducible sugar, and they 

 have them. If all honey were fully 

 digested, then the drones and queen 

 would not need any glands at all. 

 The fact that the pollen that the larva* 

 do got is partially digested is further 

 proof that this is chyme, or partially 

 digested pollen." 



The legs of bees, with their an- 

 tenna' — cleaners, claws, spines, and 

 beautiful pulvilli, are fully described 

 and illustrated, as are also the mouth 

 jKirts and sting. He does not believe 

 that the poison is dropped into the 

 cells to preserve the honey according 

 to Dr. Mnlleidioff's theory, but thinks 

 the formic acid in honey doubtless 

 comes from tlie honey-stomach of the 

 bee. 



Chapter III. is devoted to swarming 

 and nattu-al methods of increase. 

 Alluding to the piping of queens, he 

 agrees with Landois that this is a true 

 voice made in the cells, and even also 

 by a queen whose wings are cut oflf. 



