362 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
of an Apiarian Society established at Little Bautzen in Upper Lusatia, 
He observed that bees, when shut up with a portion of comb containing 
only worker brood, would soon erect royal cells, and thus obtain queens; 
— the experiment was frequently repeated, and the result was almost uni- 
formly the same. In one instance he tried it with a single cell, and it suc. 
ceeded.t. This curious fact was communicated to the celebrated Bonnet, 
who, though he hesitated long before he admitted it, was at length fully 
convinced. M. Wilhelmi (Schirach’s brother-in-law), though at first he 
accounted for the fact upon other principles, and objected strongly to the 
doctrine in question, induced by the powerful evidence in favour of it, at 
last gave up his former opinion, and embraced it. And, to mention no 
more, the great Aristomachus of modern times, M. Huber, by experiments 
repeated for ten years, was fully convinced of the truth of Schirach’s po- 
sition. 
The fact in question, though the public attention was first called to it 
by the latter gentleman, had indeed been practically known long before he 
wrote. M. Vogel, in a letter to Wilhelmi, asserts that numerous expe- 
riments confirming this extraordinary fact had been made by more than a 
hundred different persons, in the course of more than a hundred years ; 
and that he himself had known old cultivators of bees who had unanimously 
declared to him, that, when proper precautions were taken, in a practice 
of more than fifty years, the experiment had never failed.’ Signor Monti- 
celli, the Neapolitan professor before mentioned, informs us that the 
Greeks and Turks of the Ionian Islands know how to make artificial 
swarms ; and that the art of producing queens at will has been practised 
by the inhabitants of a little Sicilian island called Favignana, from very 
remote antiquity; and he even brings arguments to prove that it was no 
secret tothe Greeks and Romans‘, though, had the practice been common, 
it would surely have been noticed by Aristotle and Pliny. 
Bonner, a British apiarist, asserts that he has had successful recourse 
to the Lusatian experiment ®; and Mr. Payne of Shipdam in Norfolk (who 
for many years has been engaged in the culture of bees, and has paid par- 
ticular attention to their proceedings) relates that he well remembers that 
the bees of one of his hives, which he discovered had lost their queen, were 
engaged in erecting some royal cells upon the ruins of some of the com- 
mon ones. He also informs me that he has found Huber’s statements, as 
far as he has had an opportunity of verifying them, perfectly accurate. 
As I think you will allow that the evidence just detailed to you 18 
1 Bonnet, x. 
2 Huber, i. 182. 5 Schirach, 121. 
4 Huber, ii. 458. 5 Bonner On Bees, 56, 
6 The same gentleman subsequently sent me the following memoranda: — 
July 10. 1820. A late second swarm was hived into a box constructed so that 
each comb could be taken out and examined separately. On the 7th of August the 
queen was removed, and each comb taken out and closely examined ; there was 
not the least appearance of any royal cells, but much brood and eggs in the common 
ones. On the 14th, three royal cells were observed nearly finished, with a large 
grub each. On the 16th, the three cells were sealed. On the 18th and 21st, they 
remained in the same state. On the 22d, two queens were found hatched; one was 
removed, and the other left with the stock, the remaining royal cell being still closed, 
On the morning of the 23d, a dead queen was thrown out of the hive; upon which 
examination being made, the royal cell left closed on the 22¢ was found open, and 
a living queen in the stock, which was allowed to remain. -. 
