182 THE BEE-HIVES. 
exhibiting these facts to bee-keepers, who never besore felt 
willing to credit them. 
375. An Apiarist may use the box hives a whole 
life-time, and, unless he gains his information from other 
sources, may yet remain ignorant of some of the most im- 
portant principles in the physiology of the honey-bee; 
while any intelligent cultivator may, with an observing-hive 
and the use of movable-frames, in a single season, verify 
for himself the discoveries which have been made only by 
the accumulated toil of many observers, for more than two 
thousand years. 
“An opportunity of beholding the proceedings of the queen, in 
hives of the old form, is so very rarely afforded, that many Apia 
rists have passed their lives without enjoying it; and Réaumur 
himself, even with the assistance of a glass-hive, acknowledges 
that it was many years before he had that pleasure.’’—(Bevan.) 
Swammerdam, who wrote his wonderful treatise on bees, 
before the invention of observing-hives, was obliged to tear 
hives to pieces in making his investigations! When we see 
what important results these great geniuses obtained, with 
means so imperfect, if compared with the facilities which 
the veriest tyro now possesses, it ought to teach us a be- 
coming lesson of humility. 
The sentiments of the following extract from Swammer- 
dam, ought to be engraven upon the hearts of all engaged 
in investigating the works of God: 
“T would not have any one think that I say this from a love of 
fault-finding’’—he had been criticising some incorrect drawings 
and descriptions—*‘ my sole design is to have the true face and 
disposition of Nature exposed to sight. I wish that others may 
pass the like censure, when due, on my works; for I doubt not 
that I have made many mistakes, although I can, from the heart, 
say, that I have not, in this treatise designed to mislead.” 
376. This hive is a simplified form, but Mr. D. F. Sav- 
age suggests a still more simple one, by making the top so 
