130 THE CREATION OF JELLY MAKERS. 



long, before he degraded himself by being the instrument of 

 disseminating so gross and incoherent a fallacy. He should 

 have called to his aid the experience of others, as deeply and 

 deeper versed in the natural history of the bee, than Huber 

 himself; he should have consulted the common analogies of 

 nature ; and, as his support, he should have sought for a 

 single precedent in which the organic or sexual character of 

 the egg can be changed after its deposition by any accidental 

 principle, exteriorly administered. Huber positively asserts 

 that this royal jelly does actually possess the specific virtue 

 of imparting to a common egg all the powers and properties 

 of a royal one, at the same time that we are left wholly in the 

 dark in regard to the source whence this royal jelly emanates ; 

 whether it be a compound of certain unknown ingredients, 

 or whether it be a natural substance, which the bees find 

 ready prepared for them by some kind and charitable flower, 

 whenever the demise of royalty in the hive renders its appli- 

 cation necessary. Nevertheless, Huber has determined that 

 these royal jelly-makers do exist in the hive ; that they are 

 in some respects the elite of the community; and that by 

 virtue of their extraordinary compound, they possess the 

 power of metamorphosing a common egg into a royal one ; 

 and for this most astounding discovery, he is lauded as the 

 chief, " the prince of apiarians." 



On the other hand, Mr. Dunbar, who distinctly perceived 

 the difficulty with which the subject is surrounded, and not 

 being inclined to be servilely led by Huber, nor to attach 

 any belief to his creation of the jelly-makers, candidly and 

 ingenuously confesses that it is a difficulty which he cannot 

 overcome ; but still he admits the fact of such a power being 

 invested in the common bee of generating a queen, but by 

 what means it is accomplished, he will not venture to go 

 further than mere conjecture. 



There are five systems appertaining to the propagation of 

 the bee, each of which has it most zealous adherents, and 



