INCAPACITY OF MR. RENNIE. 207 



to death ; but this, he says, could not be accomplished, were 

 the royal cocoon, like that of the common bee, perfect ; and 

 the reason given for this is, that the silk of the cocoon is 

 of so close a texture, which, by the by, is a direct falsity, 

 that the sting could not penetrate, or if it did, the sting on 

 account of its barbs would be retained by the meshes, and the 

 queen, being unable to extract it, would become the victim to her 

 ownfury. 



In all matters connected with natural history, in which 

 consistency ought to be the leading characteristic, we are 

 naturally led to dispute the intelligence and the authenticity 

 of that individual, who, although apparently the inventor and 

 founder of a system, is continually contradicting himself in 

 the very principles of his own system, and who appears to 

 be led and misled rather by the conceit and fancy of the 

 moment, and the unconquerable desire to promulgate a 

 novelty, than by the result of actual experience *. In 



* We have certainly good grounds for censuring the committee who pub- 

 licly profess to superintend the publications of the Society for the Diffusion of 

 Useful Knowledge, in having selected an individual as the editor of one 

 department of their works, who has publicly declared himself incompetent to 

 the task, on the ground of a total absence of all practical knowledge of the 

 subject on which he professes to treat. We allude to Mr Rennie, who is the 

 avowed editor of the Hive Bee and the Insect Architecture, published under 

 the auspices of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. In the 

 true spirit of dogmatism, Mr. Rennie declares all those statements and dis- 

 coveries to be false and undeserving of the slightest notice, which are in any 

 degree refutatory of the theory or system of Huber; whilst, at the same time, 

 he unblushingly confesses, that he has no experience of his own to warrant 

 him in the conclusions which he has drawn, but having the authority of 

 Huber to support him, he considers it all-suflicient, not only for himself, but 

 for those who are desirous of acquiring any decisive knowledge on the subject. 

 In the review of the Insect Architecture, published in that excellent work, 

 the Magazine of Natural History, conducted by Mr. Loudon, the reverend 

 reviewer expresses his opinion, that Mr. Rennie has not only been led, but 

 also that he has been misled by Huber, to which Mr. Rennie indignantly 

 replies, that neither the one nor the other is the case ; yet nearly in the same 

 breath, he confesses, that he has no practical experience of his own on the 

 subject on which his editorial ability has been exercised ; and consequently 

 this candid confession amounts to a direct avowal that he must have been 

 led by the experience of others, and having no criterion by which to judge 

 whether that experience be true or false, he very properly exposed himself to 

 K 4 



