DUCARNE ON THE HONEY DEW. 371 



operating on it, coagulates and thickens it, whilst, on the 

 other hand, the honey which falls on the flowers is preserved 

 a much longer time. 



"It is said that an ahundance of this honey dew renders 

 the bees idle, and makes them careless of collecting the 

 common honey from the calyx of the flowers. I, however, 

 never saw them collect it, but upon the flowers ; one great 

 advantage however of the honey dew is, that if the season 

 be foggy and moist, and especially if attended with small 

 rain, this rain, or the too great humidity of the air, mixing 

 with the honey dew, corrupts it, and forms a composition 

 very inferior to the honey of the first species, or to that 

 which has not undergone this adulteration. 



" Those persons who have not viewed the honey dew fall, 

 like myself, have asserted, that it is nothing more than the 

 sap or juice of the plants, which, in hot weather, experience 

 perhaps a greater fermentation, and by which it is forced 

 through the leaves. In contradiction to this, I assert, that 

 it is perceived much better in the morning before the sun 

 has been able to dry and harden it. Those persons are, 

 however, deceived. J have not only seen this honey dew fall 

 a hundred times in the form of a fine rain on the leaves of an 

 ash, but I have also shown it to others, and the globules 

 were most distinctly perceived." 



It is only by a collision of opinion on speculative mat- 

 ters that truth can be elicited ; but when positive experience 

 is called in as the support of any circumstance of nature, 

 and that experience differs in its most essential points, truth 

 then becomes a matter difficult of acquirement, and the hu- 

 man mind is bewildered as to which particular system to 

 attach its credence. Thus Mr. Ducarne asserts that he has 

 seen the honey dew fall a hundred times, and that which a 

 man has seen a hundred times has some claim upon our 

 belief; we will now, however, investigate the arguments of 

 another naturalist, who attempts to prove that Mr. Ducarne 

 r 2 



