STULTIFICATION OF THE QUEEN. 93 



maturity, is at direct variance with the commonest results 

 of experience ; and, in fact, Huber himself had some lurking 

 idea that he had sent forth a most preposterous error 

 into the world, for he subsequently attempts to extricate 

 himself from the predicament in which he had involved 

 himself, by the qualification, that the queen bee must be 

 eleven months old, before she commences the great laying 

 of drone eggs, thereby disseminating one manifest error, 

 in order to bolster up another. In vain do we look in the 

 pages of Huber for any direct and positive information 

 relative to the natural habits of the queen bee, for contradic- 

 tion follows so closely upon contradiction, that truth becomes 

 wholly disguised ; and instead of reaping instruction, we 

 have only the choice left us of deciding between a series of 

 errors, each more incredible and preposterous than the other. 

 Huber, however, would not have it for a moment believed 

 that his own invention has any share whatever in the 

 creation of all this falsity and confusion, but he attributes 

 the whole to a natural cause, viz. retarded impregnation, 

 the effects of which are of a truly serious nature to the 

 queen bee. It is not sufficient that her physical powers 

 become completely disorganized, but her intellects become 

 also wofully impaired ; and, by degrees, she exhibits herself 

 so stultified, that she knows not what she is doing, running 

 about at random, depositing drone eggs in common cells, 

 and common eggs in drone cells ; and, in the end, her whole 

 nature becomes so metamorphosed, that nothing rational 

 nor consistent is to be expected from her. This stultifica- 

 tion of the queen is in fact a most convenient loophole for 

 Huber to creep through, for had he not invented it, his whole 

 system would have fallen to pieces. Still there are not a few, 

 and their number is daily increasing, who look upon this 

 stultification of the queen as a ridiculous fable ; and that, 

 instead of attaching that frailty to the queen, it ought 

 to be alleged against those who have accused her of it. 



