CONTRADICTION OP HUBER. 107 



queens, on which we shall enlarge in a future part of this 

 work, that when nature has prompted the queens to separate, 

 and not immediately kill each other, the stronger seizes the 

 first opportunity of pouncing unexpectedly on her rival, and 

 " catches her with her teeth at the root of her wings." It is 

 there that the work of death is carried on, and it scarcely 

 takes a minute to complete the operation. 



It is however very remarkable, that there is scarcely a 

 single statement made by Huber relative to the natural 

 history of the bee, in which he does not openly and grossly 

 contradict himself. Thus, for instance, having in one part 

 of his work affirmed that the bee kills his fellow, or a drone, 

 by the infliction of its sting, we find that affirmation com- 

 pletely contradicted in a subsequent part of his work, page 

 203, where he says " I find that the workers do not make use 

 of their sting in the massacre of the drones, but that they make 

 a wound with their mouth in the body of the drone, in which 

 they emit a peculiar kind of venom, which causes the immediate 

 death of the insect." 



Now Huber in the above statement was literally stand- 

 ing on the very threshold of truth, for with the exception 

 of the emission of the venom into the wound, he has given 

 us an accurate description of the manner in which the death 

 of the drone is effected. In regard to the venom, however, 

 we have a new light thrown upon the history of the bee, for 

 according to Huber, the bee has not only the power of eject- 

 ing its venom by the channel of its sting, but also by its 

 mouth ; from what source, however, this peculiar kind of 

 venom which is emitted from the mouth is produced, or in 

 what particular vesicle it is contained, or whether it be 

 peculiar only to the working bee, as the making of the royal 

 jelly is to the royal jelly makers, Mr. Huber is very discreetly 

 silent. It is, however, these inconsistencies and contra- 

 dictions, which would lead us to believe that Huber did not 

 compile his work on bees from personal experience, but that 

 f 2 



