90 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



suming that what they did discover was known to 

 Aristotle, Columella, and Pliny, we are justified in 

 pronouncing the statements of these philosophers, as 

 well as the embellished poetical pictures of Virgil, to 

 be nothing more than conjecture, almost in every par- 

 ticular erroneous. It was not indeed till 1712, when 

 glass hives were invented by Maraldi, a mathema- 

 tician of Nice, that what we may call the in-door 

 proceedings of bees could be observed. This im- 

 portant invention wns soon afterwards taken advan- 

 tage of by M. Reaumur, who laid the foundation of 

 the more recent discoveries of John Hunter, Schi- 

 rach, and the Hubers. The admirable architecture 

 which bees exhibit in their miniature cities has, by 

 these and other naturalists, been investigated with 

 great care and accuracy. We shall endeavour to 

 give as full an account of their wonderful structures 

 as our limits will allow. In this we shall chiefly 

 follow M. Huber, the elder, whose researches appear 

 almost miraculous when we consider that he was 

 blind. 



At the early age of seventeen this remarkable man 

 lost his sight by gutta serena, " the drop serene" of 

 our own Milton. But, though cut off from the sin-ht of 

 Nature's works, he dedicated himself to their study. 

 He saw them through the eyes of the admirable 

 woman whom he married : his philosophical reason- 

 ings pointed out to her all that he wanted to ascer- 

 tain ; and as she reported to him from time to time 

 the results of his ingenious experiments, he was en- 

 abled to complete, by diligent investigation, one 

 of the most accurate and satisfactory accounts of 

 the habits of bees which has ever been produced. 

 This venerable naturalist is, we believe, still alive. 



It had long been known that the bees of a hive 

 consist of three sorts, which were ascertained by 



