128 VENTILATION, 



Apiarians have often noticed the fact, that as a general 

 thing, the bees leave the honey cells almost entirely bare, as 

 soon as they have sealed them over ; but it seems to have 

 escaped their observation, that in hot weather, there is often 

 an absolute necessity for such a course. In cool weather, 

 on the contrary, the bees may often be found clustered 

 among the sealed honey-combs, because there is then no 

 danger of their melting down. 



Few things in the range of their wonderful instincts, are 

 so well fitted to impress the mind with their admirable 

 sagacity, as the truly scientific device, by which these wise 

 little insects ventilate their dwellings. I was on the point of 

 saying that it was almost like human reason, when the pain- 

 ful and mortifying reflection presented itself to my mind 

 that in respect to ventilation, the bee is immensely in ad- 

 vance of the great mass of those who consider themselves 

 as rational beings. It has, to be sure, no ability to make an 

 elaborate analysis of the chemical constituents of the atmos- 

 phere, and to decide how large a proportion of oxygen 

 is essential to the support of life, and how rapidly the process 

 of breathing converts this important element into a deadly 

 poison. It has not, like Liebig, been able to demonstrate that 

 God has set the animal and vegetable world, the one over 

 against ^he other ; so that the carbonic acid produced by the 

 breathing of the one, fuipishes the aliment of the other j 

 which, in turn, gives out its oxygen for the support of animal 

 life ; and that, in this wonderful manner, God has provided 

 that the atmosphere shall, through all ages, be as pure as 

 when it first came from His creating hand. But shame upon 

 us 1 that with all our intelligence, the most of us live as 

 though pure air was of little or no importance ; while the 

 bee ventilates with a scientific precision and thoroughness, 

 that puts to the blush our criminal neglect. 



