THE CHEMISTRY OF THE HIVE. 
603 
all proportions, is miscible with wax by the bees, and 
they employ the two in blend, as occasion may 
require. 
Little propolis is gathered while the bees are busy 
over a good honey yield, but when this closes, painting 
begins in earnest, and, if section-boxes are left on 
too long, they may be made very unsightly by every 
inequality in the box itself getting a little patch of 
brown stopping, while the capping of the comb may 
be thinly glazed, so as to considerably damage its 
appearance. 
Propolis is not necessary to bees under domesti- 
cation, although its value to those in a wild state, 
in securing needed comfort and safety, is apparent. 
The disposition to propolise is, no doubt, capable of 
considerable reduction by careful selection, as the 
amount carried by various stocks, apart from the 
question of race, is very unequal. At a period when 
bitumen from a mummy was regarded as invaluable 
in the healing art, because oddity in the source of 
any material was supposed to confer upon it strong 
curative qualities, propolis, as might be imagined, 
was found upon the shelf of the apothecary, whence, 
however, it has now disappeared. Once it was used 
in varnish ; but even here its fancied virtues have 
fled^ for modern light has shown it to be only resinous 
matter, of unequal character, and continually associated 
with every description of dirt. Neither art nor science 
now will have it, and the bee-keeper only wishes that 
the bee could be taught that collecting it is worse 
than labour in vain. 
