194 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
for respiration, and be convinced that there must be 
some means of constantly renewing it. If you feel dis- 
posed to think that thée‘ventilation takes place, as in our 
apartments, by natural means, resulting from the rare- 
faction of the air by the heat of the hive, and the conse- 
quent establishment of an interior and exterior current— 
a simple experiment will satisfy you that this cannot be. 
Take a vessel of the size of a bee-hive, with a similar or 
even somewhat larger aperture—introduce a lighted ta- 
per, and if the temperature be raised to more than 140°, 
it will go out in a short time. We must therefore admit, 
as Huber observes*, that the bees possess the astonish- 
ing faculty of attracting the external air, and-at the same 
time of expelling that which has become corrupted by 
their respiration. 
What would you say, should I tell you that the bees 
upon this occasion have recourse to the same instru- 
ment which ladies use to cool themselves when an apart- 
ment is overheated? Yet it is strictly the case. By 
means of their marginal hooks, they unite each pair of 
wings into one plane slightly concave, thus acting upon 
the air by a surface nearly as large as possible, and 
forming for them a pair of very ample fans, which in 
their vibrations describe an arch of 90°. These vibra- 
tions are so rapid as to render the wings almost invisi- 
ble. When they are engaged in ventilation, the bees 
by means of their feet and claws fix themselves as firmly 
as possible to the place they stand upon. The first pair 
of legs is stretched out before; the second extended to 
the right and left; whilst the third, placed very near 
4 i. 339. 
