PERYECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 201 
shall next enlarge a little upon their language, memory, 
tempers, manners, and some other parts of their history. 
‘“* Brutes” (it is the remark of Mr. Knight) “ have lan- 
guage to express sentiments of love, of fear, of anger ; 
but they seem unable to transmit any impression they 
have received from external objects. But the language 
of bees is more extensive; if not a language, of ideas, it 
is something very similar*.” You have seen above that 
the organ of the language of ants is their antennee. Hu- 
ber has proved satisfactorily, that these parts have the 
same use with the bees. He wished to ascertain whe- 
ther, when they had lost a queen (intelligence which tra- 
verses a whole hive in about an hour) they discovered 
the sad event by their smell, their touch, or any unknown 
cause. He first divided a hive by a grate, which kept 
the two portions about three or four lines apart; so that 
they could not come at each other, though scent would 
pass. In that part in which there was no queen, the 
bees were soon in great agitation; and as they did not 
discover her where she was confined, in a short time they 
began to construct royal cells, which quieted them. He 
next separated them by a partition through which they 
could pass their antennee, but not their heads. In this case 
the bees all remained tranquil, neither intermitting the care 
of the brood, nor abandoning their other employments ; 
nor did they begin any royal cell. ‘The means they used 
to assure themselves that their queen was in their vici- 
nity and to communicate with her, was to pass their an- 
tennee through the openings of the grate. An infinite 
number of these organs might be seen at once, as it were, 
P2AQ 
2 
® In Philos. Trans. 1897, 23! 
