38 SOCIAL HABITATIONS. 
and then to excavate a circular hole on one side, the 
interior of the hole being shaped like a concave lens. 
Round this hole or basin the Bee then excavates six other 
holes of equal diameter, so that their edges nearly touch 
each other. It then cuts away the wax from each basin 
until the material is reduced to the requisite thinness, and 
thus obtains the hexagonal cell. In the meantime, another 
Bee is working in the same manner on the opposite side of 
the wax, taking care, however, to make the centre of its 
first basin correspond with the union of three basins on 
the opposite side. A similar system of sculpturing is 
carried on, so that at last a series of hexagonal basins is 
formed, from which rise the walls of the future cells. 
There is an amount of plausibility about this theory 
which is very attractive. It must, however, be remembered 
that the Bee is still supposed to execute problems which are 
as difficult assthat which they are presumed to explain. 
In the first place, the Bee must strike perfect circles 
from centres the distance of which from each other must be 
accurately adjusted. Again, these centres must be so placed 
that the centre of the circle sculptured on one side of the 
comb must be equi-distant from the centres of the three 
adjacent circles on the other side—a problem of no easy 
accomplishment, even with the aid of rule and compass. 
Then, if the circles be not perfect, or their centres wrongly 
placed, or the hollow of one cut deeper than that of another, 
or the hemispherical form of the hollow not precisely just, 
the whole accuracy of the angles is destroyed, and the 
entire comb would be as distorted as the first essays of a 
young carpenter. 
Then there is another explanation, which may be called 
the “equal pressure” theory. The Bee is, according to 
the advocates of this theory, supposed to construct all the 
cells of a cylindrical shape, and the cells are supposed to 
