33 
make one pound of wax, which is the least amount con- 
sumed for one pound of wax produced in any experi- 
ment to our knowledge; it generally requiring more. 
Dr. Kirtland says that even as much as twenty-five 
pounds are consumed before one pound of wax or comb 
is produced. 
In the chyle-stomach, or stomach proper, the ma- 
terials are first transformed by a partial digestion into 
food, sap or jelly, and this, after twenty-four hours, is 
thoroughly digested and passes into the blood from 
which it is secreted as wax, in the form of thin, irregu- 
lar pentagonal white flakes or scales looking like 
selenite, between the segments of the abdomen, through 
the thin wax skin of the bee into a separate apparatus. 
The wax secreting apparatus is on the under or lower 
side of the abdomen, and it is formed of six segments ; 
these segments consist of two parts, the inner being a 
thin, soft, translucent skin or membrane, the posterior 
a harder, darker skin, covered on the outside with hair. 
The first or soft part is surrounded by a horny rim with 
a point on each side. Through the centre of the wax- 
secreting apparatus runs a horny partition deviding it 
into two equal parts, whereby these wax-secreting seg- 
ments form twelve superfices, which, as the apparatus is 
oval, are longer in the middle at the third segment, and 
smaller towards one end. In shape these superfices 
form irregular pentagons. The horny rims of the wax- 
3 
