348 THE PHILOSOPHY 



' bees to get out, and found that they returned as regularly as they 

 ' do in common hives, and fhewed no inclination to leave their ha- 

 ' bitation. But, to be brief, at the end of twenty days, I obferved 

 ' four young queens among the new progeny.' 



To thefe experiments of Mr Debraw, it was objeded, that the 

 queen-bee, befide the eggs which fhe depofits in the royal cells, 

 might likewife have laid royal or female eggs in the common cells ; 

 and that the pieces of brood-comb, fo fuccefsfully employed in his 

 experiments for the produdion of a queen, had always happened to 

 contain one of thefe royal eggs, or rather one of the worms proceed- 

 ing from them. But this objeftion was afterwards removed by many 

 other accurate experiments, the refults of which were uniformly the 

 ^me; and the objedors to Mr Debraw's difcovery candidly admit, 

 that, when the community ftands in need of a queen, the working- 

 bees poflefs the power of raifing a common fubjed to the throne; 

 and that every worm of the hive is capable, under a certain courfe 

 of management, of becoming the mother of a numerous progeny. 

 This raetamorphofis feems to be chiefly accomplilhed by a peculiar 

 nourilhment carefully admlniftered to the worm by the working- 

 bees, by which, and perhaps by other unknown means, the female 

 organs, the germs of which previoufly exifted in the embryo, are ex- 

 panded, and all thofe differences in form and fize, that fo remark- 

 ably diftinguifh the queen from the working-bees, are produced. 



It is always a fortunate circumftance when difcovcries, which at 

 firft feem calculated folely to gratify curiofity, are capable of being 

 turned to the advantage of fociety. Mr Debraw, accordingly, has 

 not failed to point out the advantages that may be derived from his 

 refearches into the oeconomy and nature of bees. By his difcovery, 

 we are taught an eafy mode of multiplying, without end", fwarms, 

 or new colonies, of thefe ufeful infeQs. Befide the great increafe 



of 



