a he JIA 8: TO Re Yio of BINS £ GTS, 
perfon fhould objec that the Bees can bruife 
or grind this bread with their teeth, and after- 
wards {wallow it; the anfwer is, that the 
Bees can do the fame with the granulated 
honey. My difficulty, therefore, {till remains 
unfolved, unlefs any one fhould imagine that 
the Bees grind or bruife the grains of this bread 
in their jaws, and then, after mixing them with 
the faliva, or with freth honey, by that help, 
attract and fuck them through their narrow 
'trunk; fince, befides this, they have no other 
paflage into the body for this purpofe. From 
‘ thefe reafons Iam the more confirmed in this 
opinion, fince the orifices of the trunk in 
Bees are fo imperceptible, that they do not 
feem to me to be larger than the mouth of 
the meferaic veins, or lacteals, that open in- 
to the inteftines, and which will admit only 
very thin liquids, and fuch as are purified to 
the higheft degree. 
We might further ask how this Bee-bread 
acquires its roundifh figure? alfo, whether it 
be dew, or whether the efluvia of flowers 
and fruits, firft refolved into vapours and af- 
terwards condenfed in this form ? or, finally, 
whether it has its origin from any other con- 
creted fluid, reduced to a globular form by 
force of the incumbent atmo{phere ? we have 
not. yet fufficient experiments to determine 
thefe matters; for, as Bacon juftly obferves, 
we mutft not feign or devife, but find out and 
difcover what nature produces, and how the 
operates; Something like this prefents itfelf 
to our view in nature, as may be obferved 
particularly in gums; between the petals of 
the flowers of hops, there are alfo feen a great 
number of fuch granules which are of a 
bitter tafte. 
My honoured father, the fooner to have 
ripe grapes, brought fome vine branches into 
a little fhed, built in his garden for that pur- 
pofe, making openings in the windows to let 
them in. I obferved that about thefe branches 
there was often an infinite number of white 
pellucid cryftal-like globules, which were 
fomewhat moift and clammy; nor could I 
ever melt thofe particles, or refolve them into 
vapours, becaufe there always remained fome 
matter from them, which hardened in drying. 
This I mention particularly, that I may be 
able to explain with greater accuracy the na- 
ture of that peculiar mouldinefs to which the 
Bee-bread is fubject ; for though this mouldi- 
nefs appears to be compofed of hairy, or fea- 
ther-like, or downy little parts, or, as the 
eelebrated Dr. Hooke has delineated in his 
micrography, of a peculiar kind of minute 
plants, yet it really confifts of an accumula- 
_ tion of globules that are fome bigger than 
others. This was firft fhown me at Delphos 
by the induftrious Leuwenhoek, by the help 
of a microfcope conftructed after the model 
of that invented by the honourable Mr. 
Hudde conful at Amfterdam. And therefore 
as to this matter, I think that bodies when 
they contract mouldinefs, emit only effluvia 
164 
ahd vapours, which are propelled forward by 
force of the fermenting and heated matter; 
and which, being again condenfed by the 
colder atmofphere, put on a globular figure, 
becaufe they are on every fide equally fur- 
rounded by the incumbent air; and as whilft 
fome of thefe globules are following others, 
and continually propel each other higher into; 
or towards, the air; hence are produced thofe 
uneven, hairy, and oblong little parts. 
The nature of wax thould have been more 
accurately inveftigated, in order to difcover 
whether any fattifh or inflammable matter be 
orginally mixed therewith out of the body of 
the Bee, which may be eafily fhewn from 
the ftructure of the adjacent parts : for the 
fecretions of the body are very wonderful ; 
here fat, there oil; in one place gall, in an- 
other infipid humours; on one fide an 
aqueous or watry, and on the other, a clammy 
and glutinous fubftance ; in one place volatile 
falts of an ill tafte, and in another {weet, 
aromatic, and oily volatile falts. Of this laft 
fort is civet, wherewith if paper be daubed 
it bears writing on it; and by this teft we 
moft certainly difcover whether civet be ge- 
nuine. But thefe refearches would take up 
great time and very great labour, for there 
is not on every occafion a free admittance to 
all the fecrets of nature; and the incompre= 
henfible weaknefs of our {trength is confined 
in every ftep within its ftated limits and 
narrow bounds. 
I pafs now to the comb, ot the cells and 
tubes of the Bees, which they form and 
conftruct with wax, then All with honey, 
and again clofe up with wax ; hence the comb 
properly fignifies wax formed into cells and 
filled with honey. I fhall firft treat of 
the cells of the working Bees, then of thofe 
of the males, and laftly, thofe of the females. 
All the cells of the working Bees are hexa- 
gonal both above and below, but the angles 
of the upper part are equal among themfelves; 
that is, they are equally wide, whereas in the 
lower part the angles are unequal; for three 
of them, in that part, are funk deeper than 
than the other three ; the reafon of which is, 
becaufe every cell, if it be a regular edifice, 
is built on the foundations of three other cells. 
Since therefore the foundation of the Bees 
cells tend obliquely downwards, like a trian gle, 
therefore two angles make only one defcend- 
ing oblique angle: and confequently the 
internal bafe of the cells conftantly’ tends 
obliquely downwards, and is divided into three 
diftin& parts, each of which anfwers to the 
two fides of the hexagonal circumference of 
the cell. The three angles juft mentioned 
are commonly right angles; and when they 
are pierced with a needle, that is, if every 
angle of the foundation be perforated, fo that 
each cell is pervious by three apertures or holes, 
then thofe three apertures penetrate on the other 
part into three diftiné cells. It appears moft 
evident from this palpable argument, that a 
. cell 
