210 
THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 
all the ingenuity and expense lavished upon which, are 
known, by the better informed, to be as unnecessary as a 
costly machine for lifting up bread and butter, and gently 
{jushing it into the mouth and down the throat of an 
active and healthy child. 
The Rev. John Thorley, in his “ Female Monarchy," 
published at London, in 1744, appears to have first intro¬ 
duced the practice of stupefying bees by the narcotic 
fumes of the “ puff ball ” {Fungus pulverulentus), dried 
till it M'ill hold fire like tinder. The same effect has 
been produced by pushing a rag, saturated with chloro¬ 
form or ether, into the entrance of the hive, and closing 
all tight, to prevent the escape of the fumes. The bees 
soon drop motionless from their combs, and recover again 
after a short exposure to the air. 
Some of my readers may suppose that such an easy 
mode of stupefying bees would very greatly facilitate the 
of this invention Is to elovate frames, one at a time, into a cane 'ioith glass 
60 that they may bo esninlned without risk of annoyance from the bees. Great 
ingenuity Is exhibited by the Inventor of this very costly and very complicated 
liive, who seems to imagine that smoke ^^rnust bo Injurious both to the bees and 
their brood.” Even if a little smoke Is so Injurious, the Apiarian, by sweetened 
water, or by drumming upon a hive, after closing Its entrance, can cause the bees 
to fill themselves with honey (p. 27), when oil their combs may be safely lifted out 
A Hubor-hive, or one with movable bars, may be much more safely inunaged 
than any one which proposes to elevate the frames, wlt)» .at permitting them to be 
puslied apart (p. 150). A single hive, the arrangeme* e of which arc such as to 
maim and irritate bees, Is more to be dreaded In a> Apiary than a thousand of 
jiroper construction; as It educates bees to regard ^ teir keeper In the light of an 
enemy. 
On p. 15, I have spoken of tho bar-hive, as at 'cast one hundred years old. 
From “ A Journey Into Greece, by George Whr«»lor, Esq.,” made In 1675-fl, it 
appears that it was, at that time, in common use * Here, and, probably, even then an 
old invention; he describes how It was used for forming artificial swarms, and re¬ 
moving spare honey. As the new swarms made by dividing the combs be¬ 
tween two hives, and no mention is made *•< giving the quecnless one a royal coll 
—those old observers were probably acquainted with the fact that they could rear 
one from tho worker-brood. Huber imys:—“ MontloelH,a Neapolitan Professor, 
claims that the plan of artificial swa* ‘oiiig was borrowed from Favlgnana, and tlmf 
tho practice is so ancient tlut eve iho Latin names are preserved by tho iiilmbl' 
tanta in their procedure.” 
