The Life of the Bee 
hive. And lastly, so as to connect in 
orderly fashion the larger cells with the 
small, the bees will erect a certain number 
of what are known as transition cells. 
These must of necessity be irregular in 
form; but so unerringly accurate are the 
dimensions of the second and third types 
that, at the time when the decimal system 
was established, and a fixed measure sought 
in nature to serve as a starting-point and 
an incontestable standard, it was proposed 
by Réaumur to select for this purpose the 
cell of the bee.’ 
Each of the cells is an hexagonal tube 
1 It was as well, perhaps, that this standard was not 
adopted. For although the diameter of the cells is 
admirably regular, it is, like all things produced by a 
living organism, not mathematically invariable in the 
same hive. Further, as M. Maurice Girard has 
pointed out, the apothem of the cell varies among 
different races of bees, so that the standard would alter 
from hive to hive, according to the species of bee that 
inhabited it. 
189 
