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ogies of nature is more likely to be wrong than right ; and 

 his assertion in the case before us is certainly wrong. Much 

 error would have been avoided if those who have discussed 

 the structure of the bee's cell had adopted the plan followed 

 by Mr. Darwin, and studied the habits of the cell-making 

 insects comparatively, beginning with the cells of the humble- 

 bee, following with those of wasps and hornets, then with 

 those of the Mexican bees (Melipona), and finally with those 

 of the common hive-bee. In this way, while they would 

 have found that there is a constant approach to the perfect 

 form, they would at the same time have been prepared for 

 the fact, that even in the cell of the hive-bee perfection is 

 not reached. The isolated study of anything in natural his- 

 tory is a fruitful source of error." 



Let me add to this important aphorism its fellow, which I 

 have from him, but know not if he ever printed it. " No 

 single experiment in physiology is icorth anything.^ 



The spirit of these aphorisms directed all his work. It is 

 well exemplified in his experimental researches — the hist 

 which I can here refer to, upon — " The formation of Infusoria 

 in boiled solutions of organic matter, enclosed in hermetic- 

 ally sealed vessels and supplied with pure air," and its sup- 

 plement, "Observations and Experiments on living organisms 

 in heated water," published in the American Journal of Sci- 

 ence and Arts, the first in the year 1862, the other in 1867. 

 Milne-Edwards could not have known the man, when he 

 questioned the accuracy of the first series because they do 

 not agree with those of Pasteur, and thought the difference 

 in the results depended upon a defective mode of conduct- 

 ing the experiments. As Dr. Wyman remarks in a note to 

 the second series, "the recent experiments of Dr. Child of 



