236 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



the third recovered, and laid abundantly, but drones 

 only resulted. Similar experiments are also related 

 by Langstroth, who adds that a short exposure to the 

 intense cold of a mixture of ice and salt will answer 

 every purpose. But, while the spermatozoa retain 

 their energies — unless means be taken to destroy 

 them — the queen, even when young, may become 

 incapable of distributing them ; and I have had, under 

 the dissecting-knife, not less than four examples, 

 that had been sent me as drone-breeders, but which 

 I found to contain an abundant virile supply. 



This condition may arise from the spermatozoa 

 choking the duct, or from failure of the last ganglion, 

 and Dr. Donhoff relates that he has produced it 

 by simply gently pinching the terminal abdominal 

 segment with a pair of forceps, after which the 

 queen exhibited difficulty in laying, in consequence 

 of the nerve injury. 



The fecundation of the mother-bee was the sub- 

 ject of many false hypotheses before the facts were 

 discovered. Swammerdam, observing a strong odour 

 from the drone, supposed that this, permeating the 

 body of the female, fertilised the eggs. The number 

 of drones seemed to be explained by this aura 

 seminalis theory, since a crowd would be required to 

 produce the supposed emanation in intensity. Huber 

 completely overturned this fancy, by placing the 

 drones in a box pierced with holes, the vapours 

 from which left the queen a drone-breeder. De 

 Braw, observing little white masses at the bottom 

 of the cells (really the last cast skin of the matured 

 chrysalis), announced that drones fecundated the eggs 



