SINGULAR PARADOX OF HUBER. 35 



the nurse bees, he says, that they are rather smaller than the 

 wax workers, and when gorged with honey, their belly does not 

 appear, as in others, distended. Here we have a direct rever- 

 sion of the law of fluids, for we know it to be an established 

 principle, that in all elastic bodies, the extension or expansion 

 of them is equal to the volume of the fluid received, but in 

 the present case, that principle is completely nullified; for we 

 are gravely informed that a common bee, simply be- 

 cause it is a nurse bee, shall actually gorge itself with 

 honey, so as to fill the vesicle or bladder in which it 

 is contained, but, nevertheless, that such vesicle or bladder 

 shall not, according to the law of fluids, be extended ac- 

 cording to the volume of the liquid received. Whereas, 

 on the other hand, if the same quantity of liquid be received 

 into the vesicle of the wax workers, that such vesicle becomes 

 very naturally distended ; and this gross, this glaring, and 

 palpable contradiction has been promulgated and actually 

 acquiesced in, as the positive result of the personal experience 

 of an individual, who must have entertained a most con- 

 temptible opinion of the sense and judgment of those, on 

 whom he attempted to impose so great an absurdity. We 

 will, however, put an important question to the adherents of 

 Huber. Is not the nurse bee (granting for a moment that 

 there be such a distinct species) a collector of honey? Does 

 it not range the fields in quest of the mellifluous juices ? and 

 on its return, has no distension of its vesicle taken place 

 according to the quantity of honey which it has gathered ? 

 Or is the nature of the nurse bee so wonderfully constituted, 

 that its honey bag shall distend under certain circumstances, 

 and not under others ? According to our experience, it is this 

 very distension of the body, which is, and always has been 

 considered, as the criterion of the vesicle of the bee being 

 filled with honey. The body then assumes the shape of an 

 elongated cylinder, the division of the rings becomes more 

 fully displayed, and the action of respiration is more violent 

 c 2 



