WAX, AND BEE ARCHITECTURE. 165 



gives no more room (if the material of the plate 

 be disregarded) than the dotted line (kikl), since just 

 so much as is taken out of the comb on the one 

 side is added to it on the other. The real economy 

 is in wax, for, had the midrib been flat, one-fiftieth 

 more of the precious secretion would have been 

 required ; the midrib truly taking less, but the sides 

 much more, as the part now cut off from each of 

 them by the inclination of the rhomb must have 

 been added. The strength, also, would have been 

 diminished, while the shape would have been less 

 suitable for the accommodation of a round-ended 

 chrysalis. Maraldi, seeing the advantage of an 

 equality of the solid angles, such as previously 

 pointed out, calculated them upon the hypothesis that 

 they really were equal, making them 109° 28', and 

 70 32', which is nearly accurate. To the same 

 author we are indebted for a comparison of the 

 results of theory with fact, by the admeasurement of 

 the actual angles of honeycomb. These he states to 

 be 110 and 70 — as near an agreement as 

 could be expected. Out of the details now given, 

 by successive but individually small increments of 

 exaggeration, a most extraordinary myth has been 

 constructed, which, at last, asserts that Maraldi 

 submitted the problem of comb shape to Kcenig, 

 and that his solution differed from Maraldi's actual 

 measurements, made from comb, by only 2min. of a 

 degree (whereas Maraldi's results were the outcome 

 of a geometrical hypothesis). The story continues, 

 that Kcenig, being told of this discrepancy, and 

 examining his work for a third time, found an 



