108 THE BEE-MASTER OF WARRILOW 
in which his butter is wrapped, or take a proportion 
of the blue sugar-bag with the lumps in his tea. 
Yet the last are no more absurdities than the former, 
except in degree. Pure beeswax has neither savour 
nor nutrient properties, and passes wholly unas- 
similated through the human system. Even the 
bees themselves cannot feed upon it when at dire 
extremes: the whole hive may die of starvation in 
the midst of waxen plenty. Of all creatures, mice, 
and the larve of two species of moth, alone will 
make away with it; and even in their case it is 
doubtful whether the comb be not destroyed for 
the sake of the odd grains of pollen and the pupa- 
skins it contains. Broadly speaking, unless you can 
trust a dipped finger-tip to reveal to you on the 
moment the qualities of this village-garden honey, 
it is always safer to buy in the comb. But the wax 
should never be eaten. The proper way to deal 
with honeycomb at table is to cut it to the width of 
the knife-blade; and, laying it upon the plate with the 
cells vertical, press the blade flat upon it, when the 
honey will flow out right and left. In this way, 
if duly carried out, the honey is scientifically separ- 
ated, no more than one per cent remaining in the 
slab of wax. 
The Bee as a Chemist 
It is not strange, because it is so common, to 
find people who have eaten honeycomb regularly 
all their lives, yet are unknowingly ignorant of the 
first rudimentary fact in its nature and composition. 
To know that you do not know is an intelligible 
state, the initial true step towards knowledge; but 
to be full of erroneous information, and that complac- 
