FALLACY OF HUBER S EXPERIMENT. 121 



glass, in regard to heat, was perhaps the very worst sub- 

 stance which Mr. Huber could have selected, for warmth is 

 actually indispensable to the growth of the worm through 

 every stage of its metamorphosis. He however proceeds to 

 state that he placed a worm that was to be a queen in the 

 glass cell, and it was fastened in the hive, in order that the 

 royal nymph might enjoy the degree of heat necessary for 

 its growth and expansion. It however belonged to Mr. 

 Huber to inform us in what manner the worm thus arti- 

 ficially deposited in a cold solid substance could possibly 

 enjoy that degree of heat, which was fully necessary for its 

 development, independently of many other circumstances, 

 which verge strongly upon the impossible. Schirach affirms 

 that the royal cells enjoy a higher temperature than those 

 of the common bees. Dissenting however wholly from the 

 truth of that statement, as a circumstance wholly impossible, 

 it must be admitted on all sides, that neither that higher 

 temperature, nor even an equal degree of temperature, can be 

 either obtained or maintained in a glass cell, in which no 

 queen bee was ever yet, nor ever will be bred, except in the 

 fancy of the Huberians. In fact, the whole experiment is a 

 tissue of impossibility and fiction. 



We invite all the adherents of Huber to a repetition of the 

 experiment, as described by that naturalist — let them place 

 a royal egg in a glass cell, and the result will be that it will 

 remain as a royal egg, without the slightest change, for the 

 only notice which the bees will take of it, would perhaps be 

 to tear it from the cell : it would be truly an apiarian 

 miracle, were a queen to be reared in it, and even were Mr. 

 Nutt to be called in as a professional adviser to elevate the 

 temperature in and about the glass cell, to that degree in 

 which queen bees are generally bred. 



The method of generating a queen as approved of by 

 some apiarians, consisted of extracting from a prolific hive a 

 certain portion of comb, filled with eggs and larvae ; and 



