A ROMANCE OF ANATOMY 169 



which acts on the chyle, forming it into brood-food, 

 is in full development only during the first weeks 

 of the worker-bee's career. After that its activity 

 swiftly declines, until, in old workers, it becomes 

 largely atrophied. 



The digestive gland-system of the honey-bee, 

 although it has been fairly well explored by the 

 scientific naturalists, is still much of a mystery, 

 and this especially with regard to the glands 

 attached to the jaws. The secretion from these 

 glands — obviously a very powerful acid^ — is mainly 

 used to convert the raw wax from its hard, brittle 

 character into the soft, ductile material of which 

 the combs are made. It is probably used to some 

 extent, also, in the preparation of the brood-food, 

 in conjunction with the gland in the roof of the 

 mouth. It mingles with the pollen when this is 

 masticated, and no doubt it has various other uses ; 

 but no one seems as yet to have discovered 

 why these two glands should be so enormously 

 developed in the queen, who takes no part in 

 the nursery-work or comb-building. The whole 

 question will naturally have little more thkn a 

 passing interest for the general reader ; but, to 

 the bee-keeper with a microscope, it takes a 

 prominent place among the debatable things in 

 hive-life. If the difference between the queen- 

 bee and the worker-bee — a difference of organic 

 structure as well as mere development — is really 

 brought about by variation in the quality and 



