The Life of the Bee 
was the first to study these phenomena, 
bringing incredible patience to bear and 
exposing himself at times to very seri- 
ous danger, devotes to them more than 
two hundred and fifty pages, which, though 
of considerable interest, are necessarily some- 
what confused. But I am not treating this 
subject technically ; and while referring when 
necessary to Huber’s admirable studies, I 
shall confine myself generally to relating 
what is patent to any one who may gather 
a swarm into a glass hive. 
We have to admit, first of all, that we 
know not yet by what process of alchemy 
the honey transforms itself into wax in 
the enigmatic bodies of our suspended 
bees. We can only say that they will re- 
main thus suspended for a period extending 
from eighteen to twenty-four hours, in a 
temperature so high that one might almost 
believe that a fire was burning in the 
hollow of the hive; and then white and 
transparent scales will appear at the opening 
of four little pockets that every bee has 
underneath its abdomen. 
When the bodies of most of those who 
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