THE HONEY-BEE. 
113 
haps no other insect has afforded a more decisive 
proof of the resources of instinct, when compelled to 
deviate from the ordinary course." 
It is singular that though the construction of the 
cells of a honey-comb, so geometrically just, and so 
well adapted to produce the greatest capacity, at the 
least possible expense of superficial extent or of 
materials, has been long an object of general admira- 
tion ; one Naturalist, and that of no mean celebrity, 
affects to disdain partaking of this almost universal 
feeling. Buffon, as if to evince his superiority to 
what he considers the vulgar enthusiasm excited by 
the architecture of the bees, declares that “ these 
bee-cells — these hexagons so much applauded and 
admired, serve only to furnish us with a new argument 
against enthusiasm and admiration. This figure, cor- 
rectly regular and geometrical as it appears to us, and 
as it actually is in theory, is, in this instance, but the 
effect of a mechanical result, which is often found in 
nature, and may be observed even in tbe most inani- 
mate productions. Crystals, and several other stones, 
and some kinds of salts, assume constantly this figure 
in their conformation. Let a vessel be filled with 
peas, or rather with some seeds of a cylindrical shape, 
and let it be closely shut, after having first poured 
in a sufficient quantity of water to fill up all the in- 
tervals between the seeds ; let this water be boiled, 
and all the cylindrical seeds will become columns of 
six sides. The cause, it is evident, is purely me- 
chanical. Every cylinder-shaped seed tends, by its 
swelling, to occupy the greatest possible space in a 
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