on the Sex of Bees. i g 
queen is the only female in the hive, and the mother of 
the next generation; that the drones are the males 
by which fhe is fecundated; and that the working 
bees, or bees that collect wax on the flowers, that knead 
it and form from it the combs and cells which they after- 
wards fill with honey, are of neither fex. 
But of late Mr. sciiirach, a German naturalift, has 
given us a very different view of the clafles that confti- 
tute the republic of bees, in an ingenious publication in 
his own language, under the title of Bhe Natural Hi/lory 
of the Queen of the Bees , which has been fince tran dated 
into French ; an account of which has been given in the 
Monthly Review, from which I beg leave to relate the 
author’s dodtrine with regard to the working-bees only; 
the quality and functions of the drones being points 
which do not appear to be yet fettled by Mr. schirach 
himfelf. He affirms, that all the common bees are females 
in dilguife, in which the organs that diftinguifti the fex, 
and particularly the ovaria , are obliterated, or at leaft, 
through their exceffive minutenefs, have not yet been 
obferved : that every one of thofe bees in the earlier pe- 
riod of its exiftence is capable of becoming a queen-bee, 
if the whole community ffiould think proper to nurfe it 
in a particular manner, and raife it to that rank. In 
D a fhorf, 
