HISTORY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 43 



ally females, but that their organs of generation were 

 obliterated, merely because the germs of them were 

 not developed, their being fed and treated in a par- 

 ticular manner in their infancy, in their worm state, 

 being necessary, in his opinion, to effect that devel- 

 opment. Subsequent experiments have shown, how- 

 ever, that the organs are not entirely obliterated; 

 they seem to be merely restrained from unfolding 

 themselves by the size of their cradle and the quality 

 of their food. 



" The most incomprehensible part of the process 

 is, that increasing the size and changing the direc- 

 tion of the cell, and feeding the larva with a more 

 pungent food, should not only allow the' sexual or- 

 gans of the insect to be fully developed, but should 

 alter the shape of her tongue, her jaws, and her 

 sting, deprive her of the power to secrete wax, and 

 obliterate the baskets which, but for the changes 

 just referred to, would have been formed upon her 

 thighs." 



Thus we find that this matter was well understood 

 many years, if not many centuries ago. Any writer 

 who doubts that bees can and do raise perfect queens 

 from eggs laid in worker cells, has certainly failed 

 to acquaint himself with the standard writers of the 

 last century, or the first half of the present, or has 

 failed to test the matter by properly instituted experi- 

 ments. 



I have dwelt at considerable length on this subject, 

 as I consider it one of the most important connected 

 with bee-keeping. 



