The Life of the Bee 
The real history of the bee begins in the 
seventeenth century, with the discoveries of 
the great Dutch savant, Swammerdam. It 
is well, however, to add this detail, but 
little known: before Swammerdam a Flemish 
naturalist named Clutius had arrived at 
certain important truths, such as the sole 
maternity of the queen and her pos- 
session of the attributes of both sexes, but 
he had left these unproved. Swammer- 
dam founded the true methods of scientific 
investigation; he invented the microscope, 
contrived injections to ward off decay, was 
the first to dissect the bees, and by the 
discovery of the ovaries and the oviduct 
definitely fixed the sex of the queen, hitherto 
looked upon as a king, and threw the whole 
political scheme of the hive into most un- 
expected light by basing it upon maternity. 
Finally he produced woodcuts and engravings 
so perfect that to this day they serve to 
illustrate many books on apiculture. He 
lived in the turbulent, restless Amsterdam 
of those days, regretting, he said, the “sweet 
life of the country,” and died, worn-out 
with work, at the age of forty-three. He 
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