222 THE LIFE OF THE BEE 



would appear to declare that the inferences we are most 

 desirous to draw will prove to be truest. Besides, let us not 

 forget that our ignorance still is profound. We are only 

 learning to open our eyes. A thousand experiments that 

 could be made have as yet not even been tried. If the 

 Prosopes, for instance, were imprisoned, and forced to co- 

 habit with their kind, would they, in course of time, over- 

 step the iron barrier of total solitude, and be satisfied to live 

 the common life of the Dasypodse, or to put forth the fraternal 

 effort of the Panurgi ? And if we imposed abnormal condi- 

 tions upon the Panurgi, would they, in their turn, progress 

 from a general corridor to general cells ? If the mothers of 

 the humble-bees were compelled to hibernate together, would 

 they arrive at a mutual understanding, a mutual division of 

 labour ? Have combs of foundation-wax been offered to the 

 Meliponitas ? Would they accept them, would they make use 

 of them, would they conform their habits to this unwonted 

 architecture ? Questions, these, that we put to very tiny 

 creatures ; and yet they contain the great word of our greatest 

 secrets. We cannot answer them, for our experience dates but 

 from yesterday. Starting with Reaumur, about a hundred 

 and fifty years have elapsed since the habits of wild bees first 

 received attention. Reaumur was acquainted with only a few 

 of them, we have since then observed a few more ; but hun- 

 dreds, thousands perhaps, have hitherto been noticed only by 

 hasty and ignorant travellers. The habits of those that are 

 known to us have undergone no change since the author of 

 the Memoirs published his valuable work ; and the humble- 

 bees, all powdered with gold, and vibrant as the sun's delectable 

 murmur, that in the year 1730 gorged themselves with honey 



