COMB. 99 
by M. M. Tidd, and engraved by D. T. Smith, both of 
Boston Mass. The cells are of the size of nature. The 
large ones are drone-cells, and the small ones, worker-cells. 
The irregular, five-sided cells between them, show how 
bees pass from one size to another. 
Mr. Cheshire, in his book, has criticized this engraving, 
on account of the acuteness of the cells of transition, or as 
he terms them, of accommodation. He writes: ‘‘The head 
of a bee could not reach the bottom of the acute angles as 
they are represented.’’ Our first impression, on reading 
the criticism, was that Mr. Cheshire was right. Then the 
thought that Mr. Langstroth had his engravings made from 
nature led us to inspect some combs, when we found several 
cells of accommodation with angles at least as acute as in 
the cut. But we noticed also that this acuity exists only 
on the rims of the cells and not inside; the bees, inside the 
cells, having pushed out the walls, to be enabled tb reach 
the bottom of the angles which were thus rounded inside.* 
219. The combs are built with such economy, that the 
entire construction of a hive of a capacity of nine gallons 
does not yield more than two pounds of bees-wax when 
melted. 
According to Dr. Donhoff, the thickness of the sides of 
a cell in a new comb is only the one hundred and eightieth 
part of an inch! Cheshire states that he found some that 
measured only the four hundreth of an inch. 
220. Most Apiarists before Huber’s time supposed that 
wax was made from pollen, either in a crude or digested 
state. Confining a new swarm of bees to a hive in a dark 
and cool room, at the end of five days he found several beau- 
tiful white combs in their tenement; these being taken from 
them, and the bees supplied with honey and water, new 
© Mr. Langstroth wrote to us, in regard to this criticism of Mr. Cheshire: 
‘« This piece of comb was actually copied from nature by a man of extraordi- 
nary accuracy.’’ 
