36 NATURAL HISTORY OP THE HONEY BEE. 



Milton is believed by many, to have been a better poet, in 

 consequence of his blindness ; and it is highly probable that 

 Huber was a better Apiarian, from the same cause. His 

 active and yet reflective mind demanded constant employ- 

 ment ; and he found in the study of the habits of the honey 

 bee, full scope for all his powers. All the facts observed, 

 and experiments tried by his faithful assistants, were daily 

 reported, and many inquiries were stated and suggestions 

 made by him, which would probably have escaped his notice, 

 if he had possessed the use of his eyes. 



Few, like him, have such a command of both time and 

 money, as to be able to prosecute for a series of years, on a 

 grand scale, the most costly experiments. Apiarians owe 

 more to Huber than to any other person. Having repeatedly 

 verified the most important of his observations, I take the 

 greatest delight in acknowledging my obligations to him, 

 and in holding him up to my countrymen, as the Prince of 



x\piAKlANS. 



To return to his discoveries on the impregnation of the 

 Queen Bee. By a long course of experiments, most care- 

 fully conducted, he ascertained that like many other insects, 

 she is fecundated in the open air, and on the wing, and fur- 

 ther that the influence of this lasts for several years, and 

 probably for life. He could form no satisfactory conjecture 

 how the eggs which were not yet developed in her ovaries, 

 could be fertilized. Years ago, the celebrated Dr. John 

 Hunter, and others, supposed that there must be a perma- 

 nent receptacle for the male sperm, opening into the oviduct. 

 Dzierzon, who must be regarded as one of the ablest con- 

 tributors of modern times, to Apiarian science, maintains 

 this opinion, and states that he has found such a receptacle 

 filled with a fluid resembling the semen of the drones. 

 He nowhere, to my knowledge, states that he ever made 



