182 THE BEE-HrVES. 



exhibiting these facts to bee-keepers, who never before felt 

 TviUing to credit them. 



375. An Apiarist may use the box hives a whole 

 life-time, and, unless he gains his information from other 

 sources, may yet remain ignorant of some of the most im- 

 portant principles in the physiology of the honey-bee ; 

 while any intelligent cultivator may, with an observing-hive 

 and the use of movable-frames, in a single season, verify 

 for himself the discoveries which have been made only by 

 the accumulated toil of many observers, for more than two 

 thousand years. 



"An opportunity of beholding the proceedings of the queen, in 

 hives of the old form, is so very rarely aiforded, that many Apia- 

 rists have passed their lives without enjoying it; and Reaumur 

 himself, even with the assistance of a glass-hive, acknowledges 

 that it was many years before he had that pleasure." — (Sevan.) 



Swammerdam, who wrote his wonderful treatise on bees, 

 before the invention of observing-hives, was obliged to tear 

 hives to pieces in making his investigations ! When we see 

 what important results these great geniuses obtained, with 

 means so imperfect, if compared with the facilities which 

 the veriest tyro now possesses, it ought to teach us a be- 

 coming lesson of humility. 



The sentiments of the following extract from Swammer- 

 dam, ought to be engraven upon the hearts of all engaged 

 in iuvestigating the works of God : 



" I would not have any one think that I say this from a love of 

 fault-finding"- — he had been criticising some incorrect drawings 

 and descriptions — " my sole design is to have the true face and 

 disposition of Nature exposed to sight. I wish that others may 

 pass the like censure, when due, on my works; for I doubt not 

 that I have made many mistakes, although I can, from the heart, 

 say, that I have not, in this treatise designed to mislead." 



376. This hive is a simplified form, but Mr. D. F. Sav- 

 age suggests a still more simple one, by making the top so 



