NATURE OF WAX. 381 



According to Huber, wax is a secretion found in the form of 

 scales between the abdominal rings of the bee ; and he pre- 

 tends to have arrived at that decision from actual experi- 

 ment and observation. It will not however be a task of 

 great difficulty to refute that hypothesis, and to establish 

 the real source from which wax originates. 



To detail the different fanciful conceits which have ema- 

 nated from the brain of Huber, not only in regard to the 

 natural history of the bee, but to its properties and qualifi- 

 cations, as well as to the produce of its labours, would 

 occupy too great a portion of our pages. It is, however, 

 much to be regretted that his errors and misrepresentations 

 have been acknowledged and received as the standard of 

 truth. Under the auspices of his supposed infallible au- 

 thority, the student of apiarian science finds himself grossly 

 misled ; Huber is generally appealed to as the only sure 

 guide to the natural history of the bee, and all dissentients 

 from his crude theories are branded with the epithet of 

 ignorant and presumptuous pretenders. The time, how- 

 ever, we hope is near at hand, when the fallacy of his pre- 

 tended discoveries will be fully exposed, and the natural 

 history of the bee, as far as it can be ascertained, placed in 

 its true and legitimate character. 



In the investigation of the nature of wax, Mr. Rennie 

 quotes several authorities in defence of his infallible leader; 

 but he is very tender in touching upon any one which is 

 in opposition to him. Amongst the latter, he quotes the 

 Spectacle de la Nature, and declares the opinion contained 

 in that work relative to the origin of wax to be founded in 

 error, and to a certain extent we accord with Mr. Rennie ; 

 but on examination it will appear, that the author of that 

 article, although contrary to the knowledge of Mr. Rennie, 

 was actually standing on the threshold of truth. The main 

 error of the author of the Spectacle de la Nature consists in 

 considering the farina of plants to be the wax itself, without 



