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 i'76S. Langstroth shows that 

 Herman C. Hornbostel discovered the true source of wax 

 in 1745. Thorley in i774) and Wildman in 177S 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 waxoozino- 

 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 arc, as already stated, 

 four of these wax pockets on each side (Fig. 49), and thus 

 there may be eight wax scales on a bee at one time. This 

 wax can be secreted bj' 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 w hich might 

 be in their stomachs, and then fed pure sugar, which was 

 better than honej', as Prof. R. F. Kedzie has shown by 

 analysis that not only filtered honey, but even the nectar 

 which he collected right from the flowers themsehes, 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, 



