INTRODUCTION. 
3 
points to a too common forgetfulness or ignorance of 
first principles and scientific fact. 
The man who believes that the thaw, and not the 
frost, bursts the water-pipe, will act quite differently, 
in his endeavour to prevent catastrophe, from the 
one who correctly understands the case. The dis- 
agreement in method is not due to inequality of logical 
faculty — for here the men may be equals — but to 
erroneous premises, leading to a wrong deduction. 
Similarly, the disagreement of the “ Doctors ’’ will 
be found to be often traceable to ignorance of a 
sorely neglected branch of apiculture — the one, indeed, 
to which it has been the Author’s special endeavour 
to direct attention ; and since he cannot escape 
stating an opinion upon debatable matters, it shall be 
given without any mental reservation, and will be 
supported, to the best of his ability, by the grounds 
upon which it appears to him logically to rest. It 
will thus, at least occasionally, happen that he will 
have many, possibly all, of the great names against 
him ; but, in such cases, he will not, in justice to his 
readers, hesitate to point out his isolation, and the 
more carefully to give the reasons which induce him 
to dare to differ from ordinarily recognised authority. 
This course may seem lacking in prudence, but he is 
encouraged in it by the remembrance of the practical 
unanimity with which errors, now fully exploded, 
have been received and propagated; showing that 
the voice of the majority is by no means necessarily 
accurate, but that, perhaps even frequently, error is 
with the many, and truth with the few. But it must 
not from this be imagined that the Author lightly 
