PREFACE. 
Vll 
scopical investigation, more especially in connexion 
with the anatomy of the honey bee, we have been 
repeatedly urged by friends to supply a long-felt want 
of a book that could be used by the student as a text- 
book on the subject. In complying with this request 
our object has been to supply this want of a work 
which would embody in a compact form all the recent 
discoveries found scattered in various periodicals and 
proceedings of Societies. Whilst treating the subject 
in a thorough and exhaustive manner, it is written in 
the same concise style as the British Bee-keepeF s 
Guide -hook.^ which has already been so favourably 
received that nineteen thousand copies have been 
circulated. This work is divested of all verbiage, 
superfluities, and exploded theories. Although some 
of our matter is new, the greater part is an exposition 
of the discoveries in the subject up to the present 
time. Great care has been taken not to consider as 
established facts any discoveries that have not been 
again and again verified by experiments. Except in 
the case of facts long ago established, we have deemed 
it right to give the names of discoverers and authors 
to facilitate study, and at the end of this book are 
given the names of some of the works consulted and 
