Huber has shown, by a series of well conducted experiments, that, in a natural state, the quantity of wax secreted is in proportion to the consumption of honey ; but that an equal, or even greater quantity, will be formed, if-the bee be fed on a solution of sugar in water. Warmth and rest promote this process of secretion ; for the bees, after feeding plentifully on saccharine food, hang together in a cluster, without moving, for several hours, at the end of which time, large plates of wax are found under the abdominal rings. This happened when bees were confined and restricted from any other sort of nourishment ; while those that were fed on pollen and fruits alone, did not produce any wax. It ap pears also from his researches, that the formation of wax is the office of a particular set of bees, which may be distinguished from the rest, and particularly from those that nurse the young larvae, by the greater size and more cylindrical shape of their abdomen, Dissection also shows that their stomachs are more capacious. Having already given the details of the experiments of Huber on this subject, in the article ENTOMOLOGY, in the Encydopeedia, there is no occa sion to dwell on them farther. In the second volume of Huber's Nouvelles Observations sur lea Abeilles, he describes minutely the anatomy of the pouches or receptacles for the wax, which are parts peculiar to the working-bees, being totally absent in the males and queens. It is a structure that had escaped the keen eyes of Swammerdam, and has not been noticed by any subsequent anatomist. The cavities are lined with a membrane, which presents a number of folds, forming a hexagonal net-work, not unlike the ap pearance in the second stomach of ruminant qua drupeds, and evidently destined to perform the office of secretion.
Among the secretions peculiar to the bee, the poison which is poured into the wounds made by the sting deserves to be noticed. But tor an account of this, as well as of the organ itself, we shall refer the reader to the article Bas, Sect. 2.
As it is well known that no organs for the circula d Lion of blood are provided in insects, this function of composing no part of their economy, respiration must be effected by means totally different from those which are adopted in the higher classes of the animal kingdom. As the blood, or fluid correspond ing to the blood, cannot be presented to the air in any separate organ, the air must be conducted to the blood, wherever such a fluid is met with. For this purpose, tracheae or air-tubes, having several ex ternal openings, or spiracles, are made to ramify like arteries, and are distributed in an infinite number of branches to every part of the body. The analogy
of other insects might perhaps be admitted as suffi cient evidence that bees respire atmospheric air, the constant renewal of which is essentially neces sary to the continuance of the vital functions. It is, however, not always safe to trust to analogical rea soning in subjects of history ; and direct evidence is, in all cases, to be preferred when it can be obtained. We must, therefore, consider as va luable, the complete series of experiments on the respiration of bees, that have been lately given to the world by Huber, to whom we already owe so large a portion of the information we possess with regard to these insects. We might, indeed, have anticipated, with the strongest probability, many of the results to which these experiments have led ; but there are others which are quite unexpected, and possess as much interest as of novelty.
The condition of a hive of bees, in which many thousand individuals, full of animation and activity, are crowded together in the very small space of one or two cubic feet, having no communication with the external air but by means of a small aperture in the lowest part, which entrance is frequently obstruct ed by a throng of bees, that are passing in and out during sultry weather, is of all possible conditions the one least favourable to the renewal of heated air. The most crowded theatres or hospitals are not to be compared with it in point of closeness. Direct experiment, indeed, shows that the com bustion of a taper could not be carried on in so li mited a space, for Mr Huber found that in a glass ball of the same dimensions as the hive, and with a similar aperture, the taper went out in a few mi nutes. So great was the difficulty of explaining the respiration of bees under these 'circumstances, that Mr Huber was led to examine into the truth of the opinion, that respiration was equally necessary to bees as to other insects. The results were unequi vocal. They perish speedily in the vacuum of the air-pump. They are easily drowned by placing them so- that the spiracles on the corslet are un der water ; but revive easily when they are dried. The action of the spiracles is, in this experiment, rendered manifest by the escape of bubbles of air from each of their orifices. When a num ber of bees are confined in a bottle accurately dosed, they exhibit unequivocal symptoms of dis tress, and fall into complete asphyxia. These changes occur more rapidly when they are placed in any gas which contains, no admixture of oxygen, such as carbonic acid, hydrogenous and exotic gases. When rendered torpid by cold, and respiration thereby sus