MEMOIR OF HUBER. 
21 
strictly true in regard to the most important of them. 
His discoveries respecting the impregnation of the 
Queen-Bee, — the consequences of retarded impreg- 
nation, — the power possessed by the working-bees of 
converting a worker-larva into a Queen, — a fact, though 
not originally discovered by Huber, yet, until his deci- 
sive experiments and illustrations, never entirely 
known or credited, — the origin of Wax, and the 
manner of its elaboration, — the nnture of Propolis, 
— the mode of constructing the combs and cells, — 
and of ventilating or renovating the vitiated atmos- 
phere of the hives, — these, and a variety of other 
particulars of inferior moment, have almost all been 
repeatedly verified by succeeding observers, and 
many of them by the writer of this brief Memoir. 
It is readily admitted, that some of his experiments, 
when repeated, have not been attended by the re- 
sults which he led us to expect; and some incidents 
in the proceedings of the Bees stated as having been 
observed by him or his assistant, have not yet been 
witnessed by succeeding observers. But in some of 
these, the error may have been in the repetition ; in 
others, the result, even under circumstances appa- 
rently the same, may not always he uniform, for the 
instinct of Bees is liable to modification ; and in some, 
he doubtless maybe, and probably is, mistaken. In 
passing judgment, however, on his reported disco- 
veries, we ought to keep in view, that the author of 
them has thrown more light on this portion of natural 
history, and pursued it with a more assiduous and 
minute accuracy, than all the other naturalists taken 
