A ROMANCE OF ANATOMY 169 
which acts on the chyle, forming it into brood-food, 
is in full development only during the first weeks 
of the worker-bee’s career. After that its activity 
swiftly declines, until, in old workers, it becomes 
largely atrophied. 
The digestive gland-system of the honey-bee, 
although it has been fairly well explored by the 
scientific naturalists, is still much of a mystery, 
and this especially with regard to the glands 
attached to the jaws. The secretion from these 
glands—obviously a very powerful acid—is mainly 
used to convert the raw wax from its hard, brittle 
character into the soft, ductile material of which 
the combs are made. It is probably used to some 
extent, also, in the preparation of the brood-food, 
in conjunction with the gland in the roof of the 
mouth. It mingles with the pollen when this is 
masticated, and no doubt it has various other uses; 
but no one seems as yet to have discovered 
why these two glands should be so enormously 
developed in the queen, who takes no part in 
the nursery-work or comb-building. The whole 
question will naturally have little more than a 
passing interest for the general reader; but, to 
the bee-keeper with a microscope, it takes a 
prominent place among the debatable things in 
hive-life. If the difference between the queen- 
bee and the worker-bee—a difference of organic 
structure as well as mere development—is really 
brought about by variation in the quality and 
