172 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
cells, if a greater number of bees were to build in a given 
space than could admit of all the parallel tubes being 
completed, tubes with flat sides and sharp angles might 
result, and if the mutual pressure were exactly equal in 
all directions, these sides and angles would assume the form 
of hexagons. This hypothesis of Buffon was sustained by 
such physical analogies as the blowing of a crowd of soap- 
bubbles in a cup, the swelling of moistened peas in a con- 
fined space, &c. The hypothesis, however, as thus pre- 
sented was clearly inadequate ; for no reason is assigned 
why the mutual pressure, even if conceded to exist, should 
always be so exactly equal in all directions as to convert 
all the cylinders into perfect hexagons — even the ana- 
logy of the soap-bubbles and the moistened peas failing, 
as pointed out by Brougham and others, to sustain it, 
seeing that as a matter of fact bubbles and peas under 
circumstances of mutual pressure do not assume the form 
of hexagons, but, on the contrary, forms which are con- 
spicuously irregular. Moreover, the hypothesis fails to 
account for the particular prismatic shape presented by 
the cell base. Therefore it is not surprising that this 
hypothesis should have gained but small acceptance. 
Kirby and Spence dispose of it thus : — 6 He (Buffon) gravely 
tells us that the boasted hexagonal cells of the bee are 
produced by the reciprocal pressure of the cylindrical 
bodies of these insects against each other ! ! ’ 1 The 
double note of admiration here may be taken to express 
the feelings with which this hypothesis of Buffon was re- 
garded by all the more sober-minded naturalists. Yet it 
turns out to have been not very wide of the mark. As is 
often the case with the gropings of a great mind, the idea 
contains the true principle of the explanation, although it 
fails as an explanation from not being in a position to 
take sufficient cognizance of all the facts. Safer it is for 
lesser minds tc restrain their notes of exclamation wdiile 
considering the theories of a greater ; however crude or 
absurd the latter may appear, the place of their birth 
renders it not impossible that some day they may prove 
to have been prophetic of truth revealed by fuller know- 
1 Introd . Ent , ii., p. 465. 
