152 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



returned to the mouth as true {"veritable") wax, was 

 completely overthrown by a French peasant,* whose 

 name, unfortunately, has not survived, he discovering, 

 in August, 1768, that the substance used in the con- 

 struction of comb emanated from between the rings 

 of the abdomen. This humble inquirer, a member of 

 a society of bee-keepers founded in Lusace even at 

 this early date, appears, after having pulled some bees 

 from comb they were then building, to have removed 

 their wax scales by the aid of a needle ; but his 

 pregnant observation slumbered for twenty-four years, 

 when Dr. John Hunterf partially investigated the 

 subject, and drew attention to the existence of wax 

 glands. In the following summer, the blind Francois 

 Huber, justly admired for his researches, and deserving 

 the honour of all good men for his noble acknowledg- 

 ment of the immense help he received from his ser- 

 vant Burnens, repeated the discovery of the peasant, 

 and entered upon a series of experiments and observa- 

 tions which will keep his name green so long as 

 apiculture is practised. 



We already know that the abdomen of the worker 

 is arranged in six dorsal and six ventral inelastic 

 plates, which may move upon each other, because 

 they are united by delicate membranes, giving to 

 the whole the arrangement of the tucks of a child's 

 frock. The exposed part of each ventral plate is 

 tough, and covered by webbed hairs (wh, Fig. 32), 

 which much decrease in size towards the anal ex- 



* Langstroth makes a prior claim for Hornbostel, in 1745, but he 

 gives no details of what was seen. 



f " Philosophical Transactions," 1792. 



