150 Origin of Wax. 
mature bees with food, and also to supply, in part at least, 
the queen, especially when she is not laying. 
WAX. 
The product of the bees second in importance is wax. 
The older scientists thought this was a product formed from 
pollen. Girard says it was discovered by a peasant of 
Lusace, hence a German, not a “French peasant,” as an 
English plagiarist has it, in 1768. Langstroth shows that 
Herman C. Hornbostel discovered the true source of wax 
in 1745. Thorley in 1774, and Wildman in 17478 under- 
stood the true source of wax. This is a solid, unctious 
substance, and is, as shown by its chemical composition, a 
fat-like material, though not, as some authors assert, the fat 
of bees. As already observed, this is a secretion from the 
glands just within the wax plates and is formed in scales, 
the shape of an irregular pentagon (Fig. 49, w), under- 
neath the abdomen. These scales are light-colored, very 
thin and fragile, and are secreted by the wax gland as a 
liquid, which passes through the wax plate by osmosis, and 
solidifies as thin wax scales on the outside of the plates 
opposite the glands. Neighbour speaks of the wax oozing 
through pores from the stomach. This is not the case, but, 
like the synovial fluid about our own joints, it is formed by 
the secreting membrane, and does not pass through holes, 
as water through a sieve. There are, as already stated, 
four of these wax pockets on each side (Fig. 49), and thus 
there may be eight wax scales on abee at onetime. This 
wax can be secreted by the bees when fed on pure sugar, 
as shown by Huber, whose experiment I have verified. I 
removed all honey and comb from a strong colony, left the 
bees for twenty-four hours to digest all food which might 
be in their stomachs, and then fed pure sugar, which was 
better than honey, as Prof. R. F. Kedzie has shown by 
analysis that not only filtered honey, but even the nectar 
which he collected right fromm the flowers themselves, con- 
tains nitrogen. The bees commenced at once to build 
comb, and continued for several days, so long as I kept 
them confined. This is as we should suppose; sugar con- 
tains hydrogen and oxygen in proportion to form water, 
