EULOGIUM OF LATR.EILLE ON THE BEE. 337 



the reception of the brood are in general about an inch 

 thick, giving half an inch to the depth of each cell, and 

 about two lines two-fifths to the breadth. The combs 

 which are destined for the reception of honey, and which 

 are always constructed at the sides, are sometimes twice as 

 thick as the brood combs, the depth of the cell being fre- 

 quently an inch. The cells in which the drone eggs are 

 laid are rather larger, and in the formation of those cells, 

 the bees appear to have an eye to the size of the insect that 

 is to be bred in them, as well as to the number of them 

 which are to be generated. The diameter of the drone cells 

 is three lines and a half, from which it results that twenty 

 of the drone cells will cover a space of five inches ten lines, 

 whilst twenty cells of the common bees will cover exactly 

 a space of four inches. 



Well, indeed, may Latreille in his History of Insects, 

 under the article Bees, thus express himself: " In the vast 

 creation of insects, there is no one whose history presents to 

 us such a prodigious number of wonders, as that of the bee. 

 In regard to industry, these insects are the chef d'ceuvre of 

 the creation; and man himself, so proud of his natural gifts, 

 is in some degree humiliated at the view of the interior of 

 a bee hive. How is it possible to refrain from those trans- 

 ports of admiration in contemplating the bee ? This insect, 

 so weak, so small in appearance, working without relaxation 

 in collecting the materials of its habitation, forming them 

 with so much art, and constructing those wonderful edifices, 

 the architecture of which has been the subject of the medita- 

 tions of the most profound geometricians." 



The combs at their first construction are white, but as 

 they advance in age, they gradually lose their original 

 colour, and from yellow, they become, through almost every 

 shade, a deep black ; and this change is to be attributed 

 to the interior heat of the hive, and the continual passage 

 of the bees over them. The vicinity of great manufacturing 



