494 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 
norance, and are the admiration of the most enlightened 
minds: So true it is, that the more we investigate the 
general as well as particular laws of this vast system, the 
more perfection does it present*.” 
It is observed by M. P. Huber, in his appendix to the 
account of his father’s discoveries relative to the archi- 
tecture of bees, that in general the form of the prisms 
or tubes of the cells is more essential than that of their 
bottoms, since the tetrahedral-bottomed transition cells, 
and even those cells which being built immediately upon 
wood or glass, were entirely without bottoms, still pre- 
served their usual shape of hexagonal prisms. But a re- 
markable experiment of the elder Huber shows that bees 
can alter even the form of their cells when circumstances 
require it, and that in a way which one would not have 
expected. 
Having placed in front of a comb which the bees were 
constructing, a slip of glass, they seemed immediately 
aware that it would be very difficult to attach it to so slip- 
pery a surface: and instead of continuing the comb in a 
straight line, they bent zt at a right angle, so as to ex- 
tend beyond the slip of glass, and ultimately fixed it to 
an adjoining part of the wood-work of the hive which the 
glass did not cover. This deviation, if the comb had 
been a mere simple and uniform mass of wax, would 
have evinced no small ingenuity; but you will bear in 
mind that a comb consists on each side, or face, of cells 
having between them bottoms in common: and if you 
take a comb, and having softened the wax by heat, en- 
deavour to bend it in any part at a right angle, you will 
4 Huber, 11. 230. 
