HYPOTHESIS OF MONS. EPIGNES. 21 



that eggs are still deposited, unfecundated, from which, how- 

 ever, springs a kind of male, which has never been seen, and 

 the uses of which are wrapt in an insoluble mystery. Thus 

 is the imperfection of Huber and Jurine satisfactorily ac- 

 counted for. 



Having thus expounded the theory of Huber and Made- 

 moiselle Jurine respecting the common bee, we will notice 

 the extraordinary discovery of M. Epignes, a member of the 

 Linnean Society of Bourcleaux, who in a volume of their 

 Transactions, has published his researches into the natural 

 history of the bee, and therein has decided the point, accord- 

 ing to his own opinion, beyond the power of refutation, 

 that the common bee is a decided male. Mons. Epignes, how- 

 ever, possesses sufficient candour to confess, that in the con- 

 firmation of this disputed point, he sees himself environed by 

 difficulties, from which he cannot extricate himself. The 

 existence of ten or twelve thousand males in a hive, without 

 any female to procreate their species, appears to him to be 

 in such direct opposition to the established laws and opera- 

 tions of nature, that he cannot be induced to admit it, with- 

 out committing an actual violation upon his reason. Not 

 so with Huber, however, for he bounds over those difficul- 

 ties with the agility of a chamois over the rocks of his native 

 mountains, and for which reason, he often tumbles into a 

 quagmire, from which neither he, nor his adherents, can 

 possibly extricate him. On a general principle, however, 

 there is very little difference between 10,000 females without 

 a male, according to Huber, or 10,000 males without a 

 female, according to M. Epignes ; there exists, however, 

 an essential difference between the females of Huber, and 

 the males of M. Epignes. The former procreate, although 

 their issue has never been known ; whereas the latter do 

 not procreate at all, having no female with whom to asso- 

 ciate. Without, however, attaching our assent in the slight- 

 est degree to the hypothesis of M. Epignes, we may venture 



