COMB. 79 



wax, or in some way aid the bee in producing it. Further 

 investigations must yet be made, and colonies confined with 

 honey and pollen, as well as " honey alone, before we can 

 arrive at perfectly accurate results. Confident assertions are 

 easily made, requiring only a little breath or a few drops of 

 ink; and the men.'who deal most in them, have often the 

 profoundest contempt for observation and experiment. To 

 establish even a simple truth, on the solid foundation of 

 demonstrated facts, often requires severe and protracted toil. 



A high temperature is necessary for comb-building, in 

 order that the wax may be soft enough to be moulded into 

 shape. The very process of its secretion aids in furnishing 

 the heat which is required to work it. This is an interesting 

 fact, but one which seems never before to have been noticed.- 



Honey and sugar are each found to contain by weight, 

 about eight pounds of oxygen to one of carbon and hydro- 

 gen. When converted into wax, the proportions are remark- 

 ably changed ; the wax containing only one pound of oxygen 

 to more than sixteen of hydrogen and carbon. Now as 

 oxygen is the grand supporter of animal heat, the consump- 

 tion of so large a quantity helps to produce the extraordinary 

 heat which always accompanies comb-building, and which is 

 necessary to keep the wax' in the soft and plastic state requi- 

 site to enable the bees to mould it into such exquisitely deli- 

 cate and beautiful forms.* Who can fail to admire the 

 wisdom of the Creator in this beautiful intance of adapta- 

 tion ? 



The most careful experiments have clearly established the 

 fact, that from thirteen to twenty pounds of honey are 

 required to make a single pound of wax. If any think this 

 incredible, let them bear in mind that wax is an animal oil 



* According to Dr. Donhoff, the thickness of the sides of a cell, is 

 a new comb, is ottly the one hundred and eightieth, part of an inch !. 



