RETARDED IMPREGNATION OF THE QUEEN. 89 



foregoing description of the queen laying her eggs, and 

 the position of them in the cell, are strictly conformable 

 with truth, but if we proceed a little further, we find our 

 attention drawn to the following contradictory statement : 

 " The eggs (page 77), when laid, remain fixed on the superior 

 angle of the cell, to which they are attached by a viscous 

 matter, covering them for three days ; on the fourth, the shell 

 or thin enveloping membrane bursts, and a small lively worm 

 is deposited at the bottom." Now of the foregoing statement 

 not a tittle is true : the egg is never attached to the su- 

 perior angle of the cell, but is invariably deposited at the 

 bottom. We, however, would ask, how are the uninitiated, 

 amidst these conflicting statements, to arrive at the positive 

 truth ? They may indeed have recourse to experiment 

 in order to decide the question ; but still this does not 

 absolve Mr. Duncan, who professes to be an apiarian, 

 from that merited censure which is justly his due, who 

 by his contradictions leads the scholar astray, and, instead 

 of instructing, confounds and puzzles him. 



To disabuse the uninitiated mind of the numerous 

 errors disseminated by Huber and his adherents, relative 

 to the deposition of the eggs of the queen, would far exceed 

 the limits of the present work ; and, in fact, it must be 

 acknowledged, that there is not any part of the whole 

 theory of Huber in which those errors are more glaring 

 and abundant, than when he treats of what he is pleased 

 to call the retarded impregnation of the queen, for it is from 

 that circumstance that is made to result all the confusion, 

 all the blunders and eccentricities which the queen bee 

 commits, the whole of which are attended with such 

 miraculous doings, as to set all credibility at defiance. 

 It becomes, however, a matter of very serious regret, that 

 nearly in the middle of the nineteenth century, individuals 

 can be found, professing to be men of science and experience, 

 who can co-operate in the perpetuation of the pretended 



