OPINIONS OP THE EARLY APIARIANS. 13 



dissent so far, as to assert, that all trie working bees pos- 

 sessed the power of procreation ; and in corroboration of their 

 hypothesis, they appealed to the alleged fact, that hives des- 

 titute of their queen, will continue the process of breeding, 

 and even produce a brood of drones. It was, however, a 

 part of the theory of Schirach, that the drones were not an 

 individual species, but that they originated from some spuri- 

 ous or corrupted eggs, or in other words, that they were 

 natural abortions. 



In order, however, to consider the history of the bee in its 

 most essential relations, there are certain premises which must 

 be laid down as the basis of that history, although we are 

 well aware that some apiarians, particularly of the Huberian 

 school, will not admit of their validity, and, in fact, it must 

 be allowed, that it is that very contrariety of opinion, which 

 subsists in regard to the natural history of the bee, enveloped, 

 as it is, in almost impenetrable mystery, that renders the 

 attainment of truth so difficult. 



It must, in the first place, be conceded, that the queen 

 bee lays every egg in the hive : she is, in fact, the only female, 

 although Huber, Jurine, Humel, Forlani, with a few English 

 apiarians, as their adherents, have revived the obsolete idea, 

 that the working bees are themselves females, although not 

 perfectly formed. Such, indeed, was the opinion of the 

 early German apiarians, who characterized the common bees 

 as unvollkommene Weibchen (imperfect little females or mo- 

 thers), and some indistinct procreating power was given to 

 them, but, at the same time, it was so extravagant and 

 confused, that the generic character of the insect could 

 not be accurately ascertained. The general notions of 

 the German apiarians, respecting the natural history of the 

 bee, were altogether indefinite and paradoxical; and it is 

 universally allowed, that even those individuals, who were 

 appointed by several of the reigning princes of Germany, to 

 superintend their apiaries, or bee-gardens, were as grossly 

 b 3 



