CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY AND HISTORICAL. 



In the whole range of created objects presented to our con- 

 templation in the study of what we familiarly call Nature, 

 from the inconceivably great systems of inanimate matter 

 rolling in infinite space to the inconceivably small but 

 animated forms revealed by the microscope, there is probably 

 no class more calculated to excite our wonder and admiration 

 than that of Insects ; and of all the different kinds of insects 

 there is none more interesting as an object of study, and none 

 that can be made more useful and profitable to man, than the 

 Honey Bee. Its history is as old as that of the human race ; 

 its product, honey, was recognised in the earliest ages as a 

 most desirable, almost an indispensable, addition to the food 

 of man : and yet it is only now, some 3400 years after its first 

 authentic historical mention, that we are beginning to realise 

 the full economic importance of that product and to avail our- 

 selves fully of the bounty of Providence, evidenced not only in 

 its production, but also in the endowment of the bee with 

 those wonderful instincts which render its collection so easy. 



ANTIQUITY OF THE USE OF HONEY. 



A certain proportion of saccharine matter in the food of 

 man appears to be essential for his sustenance in a healthy 

 condition, and previous to the comparatively modern invention 

 of preparing sugar from vegetable juices, the only form in 

 which such saccharine matter was attainable in a concentrated- 

 state was that of honey. The temperate or semi-tropical 

 climate of that part of the globe which formed " the cradle of 

 the human race " was most favourable to the spontaneous 

 spreading of the honey-bee and the collection of surplus honey 

 in its natural hives or nests. These would be built in the 

 hollows of trees, in the clefts and under the ledges of rocks, as 

 they are at the present day in such climates, and their stores 



B 



