12 PHTSIOLOGT OF THE HONET-BEE. 



number of 37,800 distinct organs. When I couple this develop- 

 ment with, the greater size of the eye of the drone, and ask what 

 is his function, why needs he such a magnificent equipment? and 

 remember that he has not to scent the nectar from afar, nor spy 

 out the coy blossoms as they peep between the leaves, I feel forced 

 to the conclusion that the pursuit of the queen renders them nec- 

 essary." (Cheshire.) 



27. While giving these short quotations and beautiful 

 engravings from Cheshire's anatomy of the bee, we earnestly 

 advise the scientific bee-student to procure and read his 

 work. Mr. Cheshire shows us those minute organs so beauti- 

 fully and extensively magnified, that in reading his book we 

 feel as though we were transported by some Genius inside 

 of the body of a giant insect, ever}^ detail of whose organ 

 -ism was laid open before us. However wonderful the 

 statement made above, of the existence of nearly 20,000 

 organs in such a small thing as the antenna of a bee, this 

 fact will not be disputed. Those of our bee-friends, who have 

 had the good luck to meet the sj'mpathetic editor of the 

 British Bee-Journal, Mr. Cowan, during his trip to America, 

 in 1887, will long remember the wonderful microscopical 

 studies, and the microscope which he brought with him. 

 This instrument, the most powerful by far that we ever had 

 seen, gave us a practical peep into the domain of the infini- 

 tesimal. 



28. Better than any other description of the smallness of 

 atoms is that given by Flammarion, in his "Astronomie 

 Populaire ' ' : 



" It is proven," he says, "that an atom cannot be larger than 

 one ten-millionth of a millimeter. It results from this, that the 

 number of atoms contained in the head of a pin, of an ordinary 

 diameter, would not be less than 



8,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. 



And if it was possible to count these atoms, and to separate them, 

 at the rate of one billion per second, it would take 250,000 years 

 to number them."' 



