IMPORTANT DISCOVERY OF HUBER. 187 



although, according to his usual consistency, he has given us 

 two reasons for it : first, that it arose from her resentment 

 in not being permitted to leave the cell, and, secondly, that 

 her majesty wanted something to eat, which, of course, was 

 duly and plentifully administered by the attendant guards, 

 Mr. Huber being himself an eye-witness of the royal regale. 

 On a sudden, however, a fresh light darts into his creative 

 brain, and he discovers that neither of those two causes was 

 the true one ; but that it proceeds from a cause, which we 

 are certain never could have been engendered in any other 

 head than his own. He informs us of the exact circum- 

 stance which guided him to this important discovery, 

 which was, that the bees, who form the guard of the royal 

 cells, liberate the young queens according to their respective 

 ages; but then Mr. Huber, with his accustomed sagacity, 

 very properly inquires, by what means, or by what token or 

 signs, are the bees to know exactly the age of the respective 

 embryos ? and also so very accurately, as never to make 

 a mistake in the liberation of a young queen, for one that is 

 more advanced in age ? That the young queens must 

 possess some particular power of imparting their real age 

 to the bees is a point of which Mr. Huber entertains not the 

 slightest doubt, and, therefore, what other power can that 

 be, than that of piping or humming, and that the young 

 queen, whose cell is first sealed is also the first to pipe, and 

 so on in rotation with the whole ; but then Mr. Huber very 

 properly asks, how are the bees to remember which of the 

 young queens piped the first, and thereby avoid the risk 

 of committing the serious blunder of emancipating a junior 

 for a senior ? There is not, however, any obstacle which Mr. 

 Huber cannot surmount, however strange and miraculous may 

 be the means by which it is accomplished. A great difference, 

 says Mr. Huber, exists between the voice of a young woman 

 and an old woman, in which we perfectly agree with him ; and 

 therefore, argues Mr. Huber analogically, a great difference 

 i 6 



