384 OPINION OF LATREILLE. 



followed by the Professor of King's College, with his Hu- 

 berian disciples at his heels, Messrs. Kirby and Spence 

 being the whippers-in. 



Huber, in all his experiments, does not prove in a single 

 instance that no pollen, in a state of elaboration, was to be 

 found in the stomach of the bee; nor does he inform us 

 that he killed some of the bees in order to detect the pre- 

 sence or absence of that substance ; but he grounds the 

 whole of his hypothesis upon the single fact, that he con- 

 fined a certain number of bees, feeding them simply on 

 sugar and honey ; the result of which was, that some combs 

 were constructed. From which circumstance Huber draws 

 the inference, that as there was not any pollen in the hive, 

 nor, as far as he knew, that the bees had any access to it in 

 another quarter, honey, or, in default of that substance, 

 sugar, is the constituent principle of wax. Thus, according 

 to Huber, it is of no material consequence with what aliment 

 the bees are fed, whether it be honey, sugar, molasses, or 

 syrup, wax can be made of each, not however as it will be 

 seen by any elaboration in the stomach of the bee, but by 

 exudation. 



On this subject Latreille says, "the first stomach of the 

 bee is appropriated to the reception of honey, but this is 

 never found in the second stomach, which is surrounded 

 with muscular rings, within which the wax is produced, but 

 the secreting vessels for this purpose have hitherto escaped 

 the researches of the acutest naturalists." 



In order, however, to investigate this statement of La- 

 treille, we are told by the editor of the Insect Architecture, 

 that these secreting vessels are contained in the internal linings 

 of the wax pockets, which consist of a cellular substance, re- 

 ticulated with hexagons, in the writing of which it may be 

 supposed that Mr. Rennie had Johnson's definition of net- 

 work in his remembrance. We have, however, here a 

 plausible conjecture of Huber placed in opposition to the 



