CHAPTER 1. 
INTRODUCTORY AND HISTORICAL. 
In the whole range of created objects presented to our con- 
templation in the study of what we familiarly call Nature, 
from the inconceivably great systems of inanimate matter 
rolling in infinite space to the inconceivably small but 
animated forms revealed by the microscope, there is probably 
no class more calculated to excite our wonder and admiration 
than that of Jnsects; and of all the different kinds of insects 
there is none more interesting as an object of study, and none 
that can be made more useful and profitable to man, than the 
Honey Bee. Its history is as old as that of the human race ; 
its product, honey, was recognised in the earliest ages as a 
most desirable, almost an indispensable, addition to the food 
of man: and yet it is only now, some 3400 years after its first 
authentic historical mention, that we are beginning to realise 
the full economic importance of that product and to avail our- 
selves fully of the bounty of Providence, evidenced not only in 
its production, but also in the endowment of the bee with 
those wonderful instincts which render its collection so easy. 
ANTIQUITY OF THE USE OF HONEY. 
A certain proportion of saccharine matter in the food of 
man appears to be essential for his sustenance in a healthy 
condition, and previous to the comparatively modern invention 
of preparing sugar from vegetable juices, the only form in 
which such saccharine matter was attainable in a concentrated- 
state was that of honey. The temperate or semi-tropical 
climate of that part of the globe which formed “ the cradle of 
the human race” was most favourable to the spontaneous 
spreading of the honey-bee and the collection of surplus honey 
in its natural hives or nests. These would be built in the 
hollows of trees, in the clefts and under the ledges of rocks, as 
they are at the present day in such climates, and their stores 
B 
