PERFECT SOCIETI“S OF INSECTS. 391 
what is stagnant and putrescent to that of a running stream.’ I have 
frequently observed them busy in corners moist with urine ; perhaps this 
is for the sake of the saline particles to be there collected. 
A new-born bee, as soon as it is able to use its wings, seems perfectly 
aware, without any previous instruction, what are to be its duties and 
employments for the rest of its life. It appears to know that it is born 
for society, and not for selfish pursuits ; and therefore it invariably devotes 
itself and its labours to the benefit of the community to which it belongs. 
Walking upon the combs, it seeks for the door of the hive, that it may 
sally forth and be useful. Full of life and activity, it then takes its first 
flight ; and, unconducted but by its instinct, visits like the rest the subjects 
of Flora, absorbs their nectar, covers itself with their ambrosial dust, 
which it kneads into a mass and packs upon its hind legs, and, if need 
be, gathers propolis, and returns unembarrassed to its own-hive.* 
Instances of the expedition with which our little favourites accomplish 
their various objects you have had several; but this is never more re- 
markable than when they settle in a new hive. At this time, in twenty- 
four hours they will sometimes construct a comb twenty inches long by 
seven or eight wide; and the hive will be half filled in five or six days ; 
so that in the first fifteen days as much wax is made as in the whole year 
besides,5 
In treating of the various employments of the bees, I must not omit 
one of the greatest importance to them—the ventilation of their abode. 
When you consider the numbers contained in so confined a space, the 
high temperature to which its atmosphere is raised, and the small aperture 
at which the air principally enters, you will readily conceive how soon 
it must be rendered unfit for respiration, and be convinced that there 
must be some means of constantly renewing it. If you feel disposed to 
think that the ventilation takes place, as in our apartments, by natural 
means, resulting from the rarefaction of the air by the heat of the hive, 
and the consequent establishment of an interior and exterior current, a 
simple experiment will satisfy you that this cannot be. Take a vessel of 
the size of a bee-hive, with a similar or even somewhat larger aperture ; 
introduce a lighted taper; and if the temperature be raised to more than 
140°, it will go out in a short time. We must therefore admit, as Huber 
observes4, that the bees possess the astonishing faculty of attracting the 
external air, and at the same time of expelling that which has become 
corrupted by their respiration. 
What would you say, should I tell you that the bees upon this occasion 
ave recourse to the same instrument which ladies use to cool themselves 
When an apartment is overheated ? Yet it is strictly the case. By means 
of their marginal hooks, they unite each pair of wings into one plane 
slightly concave, thus acting upon the air by a surface nearly as large as 
possible, and forming for them a pair of very ample fans, which in their 
vibrations describe an arch of 90°. These vibrations are so rapid as to 
tender the wings almost invisible. When they are engaged in ventilation, 
the bees by means of their feet and claws fix themselves as firmly as pos- 
sible to the place they stand upon, ‘The first pair of legs is stretched out 
before; the second extended to the right and left ; whilst the third, 
1 Reaum. Phil. Zrans, 1792, 697. 2 Reaum, yv. 602, 
5 Ibid. 666, 4 ii, 339. 
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