PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 363 
abundantly sufficient to establish the fact in question, we will now sce 
whether any satisfactory account can be given for such changes being pro- 
duced by such causes, “It does not appear to me improbable,” says 
Bonnet, “ that a certain kind of nutriment, and in more than usual abun- 
dance, may cause a development in the grubs of bees of organs which would 
never be developed without it, I can readily conceive, also, that a habita~ 
tion considerably more spacious, and differently placed, is absolutely ne- 
cessary to the complete development of organs which the new nutriment 
may cause to grow in all directions.” And again, with respect to the 
wings of the queen-bee, which do not exceed those of the workers in 
length, he thinks that this may arise from their being of a substance too stiff 
to admit of their extension. Those parts and points that were in a state 
to yield most easily to the action which this kind of nutriment produced 
would be most prominent ; and the vertical position of the grub and pupa, 
since nature does nothing in vain, may probably assist this action, and 
render the parts of the animal more capable of such extension than if it 
continued in a horizontal position. 
We know, with respect to the human species and the larger animals, that 
numerous differences, both as to the form and relative proportion of parts, 
occur continually. The cause of these differences we cannot always as- 
certain ; yet in many instances they may either be derived from the nutri- 
ment which the embryo receives in the womb, or from the greater or less 
dimensions or higher or lower temperature of that organ—a case that 
analogically would not be very wide of that of the grub or embryo of a 
bee enclosed in a cell, Some of the differences in man I now allude to 
may often be caused by a particular diet in childhood ; a warmer ora colder, 
a looser or a tighter dress, or the like. Thus, for instance, the Egyptians, 
who went bare headed, had their skulls remarkably thick ; while the Per- 
sians, who covered the head with a turban or mitre, were distinguished by 
the tenuity of theirs. Again the inhabitants of certain districts are often 
remarkable for peculiarities of form, which are evidently produced by local 
circumstances. 
The following reasoning may not be inapplicable to the development or 
non-development, according to their food and habitation, of the ovaries 
of these insects. An infant tightly swathed, as was formerly the custom, 
in swaddling bands, without being allowed the free play of its little limbs, 
fed with unwholesome food, or uncherished by genial warmth, may from 
these circumstances have so imperfect a development of its organs as to 
be in consequence devoted to sterility. When a cow brings forth two 
calves, and one of them is a female, it is always barren, and partakes in 
part of the characters of the other sex.? In this instance, the space and 
food that in ordinary cases are appropriated to one, are divided between 
two; so that a more contracted dwelling and a smaller share of nutriment 
seem to prevent the development of the ovaries. 
The following observations, mostly taken from an essay of the cele- 
brated anatomist John Hunter, in fhe Philosophical Transactions, since 
they are intimately connected with the subject that we are now consider- 
ing, will not be here misplaced. In animals just born or very young, there 
are no peculiarities of shape, exclusive of the primary distinctions, by 
1 Huber, ii. 445. 
9 See J. Hunter’s Treatise on certain Parts of the Animal Gconomy. 
