408 OPINION OF LOMBARD. 



polis. We proceeded to detach from the top the whole of 

 the substance, which exhibited a rude and shapeless mass, 

 but in which the foundation of the infant cells was distinctly 

 perceptible. We submitted the lump to the usual test, and 

 the result was a genuine piece of wax, very little inferior in 

 weight to the piece previously to its being submitted to the 

 process of ebullition. The experiment, however, was but 

 the repetition of many similar ones that had previously been 

 made, and under every possible circumstance which could 

 either verify or disprove the existence of two separate sub- 

 stances in a hive, namely, wax and propolis ; and the result 

 of which we consider to be, that the substance called pro- 

 polis is not a natural one, gathered in its crude state by the 

 bees, but that it is wax in all its constituent and elementary 

 principles. 



Mr. Lombard says, " That a perfect ignorance prevails 

 regarding the matter of which propolis is made, or whence 

 the bees extract it." This we consider as a most extraor- 

 dinary confession on the part of Mr. Lombard. He should 

 have consulted his great and infallible leader, Huber ; and 

 although the statements of that naturalist might not have 

 been correct, still Mr. Lombard might have adopted them 

 with the same confidence which he has so lavishly bestowed 

 on the fortifications, the duels, the magical attitudes of the 

 queen, her knowledge of the French language, and other 

 of the absurdities of Huber. 



