120 



Chapter VI. 



ARCHITECTURE OF THE HIVE-BEE CONTINUED.— FORM 

 OK THE CELLS. 



The obstruction of which M. Huber complains only 

 operated as a stimulus to his ingenuity in contriving 

 how lie might continue his interesting observations. 

 From the time of Pappus to the present day, mathe- 

 maticians have applied the principles of geometry to 

 explain the construction of the cells of a bee-hive; 

 but though their extraordinary regularity, and won- 

 derfully selected form, had so often been investigated 

 by men of the greatest talent, and skilled in all the. 

 refinements of science, the process by which they are 

 constructed, involving also the causes of their regu- 

 larity of form, had not been traced till M. Huber 

 devoted himself to the inquiry. 



As the wax-workers secrete only a limited quantity 

 of wax, it is indispensably requisite that as little as 

 possible of it should be consumed, and that none of it 

 should be wasted. Bees, therefore, as M. Reaumur 

 well remarks*, have to solve this difficult geometrical 

 problem :— A quantity of wax being given, to form 

 of it similar and equal cells of a determinate capa- 

 city, but of the largest size in proportion to the 

 quantity of matter employed, and disposed in such a 

 manner as to occupy the least possible space in the 

 hive. This problem is solved by bees in all its con- 

 ditions. The cylindrical form would seem to be best 

 adapted to the shape of the insect; but had the cells 

 been cylindrical, they could not have been applied to 



* Reaumur, «ol. v., ,.. 380. 



