BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
If we accept the opinion of a great physiologist, the seminal liquid is but a special stimulant acting upon the germs as a very substantial food suitable for their development; Mr. Bonnet, in trying to explain Schirach's theory, used the following hypothesis, he writes: "I have established on apparently solid evidence, that the seminal liquid is a nourishing fluid and a stimulant, I have shown how it is able to produce the greatest changes in the interior part of the embryos; therefore it does not appear impossible that a certain and more abundant food should cause the development, in the larvae of bees, of organs that could never have developed without it; it is unimportant that this particular food should reach the organs through the intestines or by another route, it is sufficient that it has the property of extending them: it is for those organs an appropriate decundation just as efficacious as that which gives birth to the animal itself."
Is it impossible that this kind of food, so substantial and so different from what is received by the common larvae, being administered too late or too sparingly to the larvae originating near the royal cells, may have consequences similar to the retarded feecundation of queens? Have not the fibres of the ovaries attained too great rigidity, to permit the development of some of the eggs, when the semen of the male, or the royal pap does not produce enough energy to act in the opposite way and destroy the equilibrium? While giving these conjectures, I do not pretend to explain everything, I feel that they may be overthrown as well as defended, but I have thought best to suggest them, as they may open a new path to the meditations and the experiments of physiologists.
The sex of worker bees having been demonstrated as clearly as it is possible to do, we will investigate the reproaches addressed to Mr. Schirach by Mr. Monticelli, a professor of Naples, author of a work entitled: "Of the Treatment of Bees at Favignana." This writer accuses the Dutch
20 Huber almost pointed to parthenogenesis in the above words. The student knows that parthenogenesis was discovered by Dzierzon a few years after Huber's death.--Translator.
philosopher with claiming the discovery of the formation of artificial swarms and with having borrowed the idea of it from the customs of a small nation inhabiting a cliff in the Mediterranean, near the coast of Siclly. Schlrach was far from giving himself out as the author of a method practised long anterior to his own time in the country in which he lived. At all times practice had preceded theory; it is success which leads to the discovery of the truths upon which it is founded, and the knowledge of those truths in its turn insures the wavering advance of the cultivators: assuredly no one will claim the discovery of the theory which the Lusatian observer had so much trouble in propagating, which appeared contrary to all accepted notions, and concerning which Mr. Bonnet, so wise in his opinions, had warned the members of the Lusatian association not to support the conversion of worker larvae in queens for fear of disrediting themselves completely in the eyes of true naturalists.
It was only the passionate love of truth which led Mr. Schirach and his supporters to espouse a cause so inausplelous; he describes his discovery in the following words:
"I was compelled to use a large amount of smoke, for driving bees to the top of their hive, in order to cut out some brood, on the 12th of May. They were annoyed by it beyond my wishes; a number escaped from the hive with the queen without my perceiving it; but my younger daughter who assisted me in this operation warned me of it and her suspicion proved correct.
"To hear the plaintive sounds of the bees that had remained in the hive, one might have concluded that the subjects of this republic were unanimously mourning the loss of a cherished queen; I sought the neighborhood, the garden, the vegetable enclosure, even the meadows of the vicinity, without having the good luck to discover the fugitives; thinking that this swarm was lost without hope, I resolved to rear a new one by introducing into the hive a comb containing all three kinds of cells, similar to the one of which I had just deprived them.
"On the morning of the 13th, I prepared to clean the hives which I had pruned on the preceding day, and which never failed to carry out the rubbish during the night. I observed a cluster of bees of the size of an apple on the support of the hive whose queen had fled. Being astonished at this sight, I undertook to separate them to look for the lost queen; I did find her, placed her at the entrance of the hive, and she was immediately surrounded with bees: their extraordinary concourse, their activity, the pleasant humming which succeeded their Iagubrious sounds indicated that she was indeed their queen; to make myself still better sure of it, I introduced her into the hive, which was raised for that purpose. What was my astonishment when wishing to introduce her among the combs, I saw that the bees remaining had already outlined and almost finished three royal cells. Struck with the activity and sagacity of these insects to save themselves from impending destruction, I was filled with admiration and adored the infinite goodness of God in the care that he deigns to take to perpetuate his works. Wishing also to see whether the bees would continue their operations, I removed two of the cells and left them but the third. The next morning I beheld with the utmost surprise that they had removed all the food from the third worm
## Use of Antennae in complicated operations.
so as to prevent it from forming into a queen; a strange fact; is there anything more surprising, more remote from the simple mechanism? &c."
The discovery of this kind of transformation soon rendered the practice of artificial swarms easier and less expensive. Formerly they thought it necessary to give the bees large combs containing the three kinds of brood; Mr. Schirach showed that its success depended upon a single cell occupied by a worm three days old, and proposed several improvements in the process of swarm formation; but he never thought of claiming the invention of this method. In order to convince ourselves of this, it is only necessary to read a passage of a letter from his brother-in-law, Mr. Willelmi, who was not likely to yield to him on any point:
"Since a long time," he writes to Bonnet, "in these districts they make artificial swarms, in May, as soon as they discover brood in the hive; this method has been much improved by the researches of Mr. Schirach, as shown by the records of our society for the years 1766 and 1767."
The letters from which I have taken these quotations are found in the book of Mr. Schirach entitled "Natural History of the Queen Bee," translated by Blassiere. Is it likely that he should have left, in a book translated under his name, authentic evidences of the ancientness of the process of artificial swarms, if he had desired to appropriate that discovery?
The Italian author wishing to gain credit to his country for the discovery of the artificial swarm method, and forgetting that the great community of science is less interested in disputes about inventions than in their utility and the perfecting of them, openly charges Mr. Schirach with borrowing the plan of artificial swarms from Favignana, a distant island where travelers land rarely. A connection between the name given by Columbia to the brood of bees (pullus) and that used by the inhabitants of this island (pullo) induces him to believe that the Romans and perhaps the Greeks knew the Favignana method; another connection between the distance to which both Schirach and the inhabitants of this island carry the old hives in the operation of artificial swarming, appears to him as a sufficient demonstration of the plagiarism of the secretary of the Lusatian society: but we must read what he says concerning this matter:
"Urged by the desire of being useful to my fellow-men and especially to the Italians, I have concluded to describe in these memoirs the method by which the natives of Favignana manage the industry of bees; a method very different in several ways from that which is practiced in the Kingdom of Naples, and in the rest of Italy, and which, for this reason, deserves to be made known, especially as it unites the utility of transmigration of bees with the art of producing artificial swarms, known in Europe as the production and invention of Mr. Schirach, although the Favignanese practice it ordinarily in so ancient a manner that they have preserved the latin names in their process; we will thereby have an additional occasion to vindicate the honor of Italy, disparaged upon that point as upon many others, by clever strangers who, while traveling in our country, visiting our libraries, reading our authors, take from our books the finest inventions to adorn their own selves.
"Certainly, whoever shall read these memoirs and shall compare the artificial swarm method of Favignana, with that of Mr. Schirach, will notfail to recognize the origin of the latter in the former, as we shall prove in due time; I must however acknowledge that the Greeks and the Turks of the islands of the Ionian Sea make artificial swarms; which Mr. Schirach may have learned; but as the Favignana method is perfect, and of assured success it is but fair to grant to its inhabitants the honor of having preserved so useful a practice, which required as much perspicacity and thought in our ancestors as it showed correctness of bee observation in what was transmitted to us.
"Mr. Schirach passes among the people beyond the Alps as the inventor of the method of artificial swarms, which is still so noised about in Germany and in the North; the Favignanese knew this before Mr. Schirach and before the invasion of the barbarians; they have still preserved two methods, one of which, greater, more generally used and more perfect, is not known to Mr. Schirach who imitates the second method of the Favignanese, &c."
We shall not repeat all the assertions of this sort with which this work is filled and which indicate that the author did not read Schirach; we shall not even take notice of the darts personally addressed to us by Mr. Montichell; it is evident that, blinded by national feelings he could not forgive us for rendering justice to the savant whom he tries to condemn as a plagiarist.
Had the love of truth induced this writer to verify for himself the facts which he denies, had he found errors in Burnens through his own observations, we could blame him only for the levity with which he expresses himself. But his incredulity relies upon the authority of a certain Father Tanoya, who may be a very respectable man, but with whom we cannot agree as does the Naples professor when he states that there are in each hive three kinds of bees, independent of each other, to wit: drones male and female, queens and workers of both sexes, each kind building its own particular cells, the queen building hers, the drones thefts, &c.; regardless of Reaumur, de Gers, Geoffroi, Linna, Buffon, Swammerdam, Latville, &c. If they were not aware of the hypotheses of Father Tanoya, Mr. Montichell challenges their reliability: we shall not complain of having to share the fate of all these observers; we must, on the contrary, thank the Napolitan professor for being kind enough to admit us into so honorable a prospertion.
We cannot help regretting that these faults be found in the work of Mr. Montichell, for it contains a fairly good practice in the art of caring for bees and of producing artificial swarms; it is written with interest and purity and contains a happy confirmation of the principles of Mr. Schirach and we are astonished that an author whose ideas of natural history appear to be taken from the best sources should have admitted in its notes the most absurd system.
The industrious Favignanese constructed their hives of wood: they are oblong square boxes, the ends of which are movable; the box itself is open at the bottom and rests upon its stand; it is with these hives that they practice artificial swarming in the manner following: As the spring is much earlier with them than with us they may begin as early as the month of March in the multiplication of hives; as soon as the bees bring back pellets of pollen they consider the time favorable for this operation; the hive is transported at some distance from the apiary; they open it from the farther end and the bees are driven with smoke to the forward part, when some of the combs commonly containing honey are cut out; next driving the bees to the posterior part, they take a certain number of combs from the anterior part, some of which are empty, some full of brood of all ages (worker brood which they call latin combs); these are then put into the new hive which they hold in an inverted position, and which is thus open from above; they establish them in it in the same order as found in the mother hive and fasten them with pegs driven in from the outside; this done, they carry the new hive to the spot occupied by the old one, and remove the latter fifty steps from the apiary; the bees that were in the field, coming home, find a hive similar to the one from which they had issued, lodge themselves there, rear the brood and prosper.
The success of this operation, which very much resembles Schirach's, amply confirms his theory.
This gives us occasion to mention a slightly different and very ingenious method, invented by Mr. Lombard, a great cultivator of bees and the author of an excellent treatise on their practical economy.
The Lombard process is the reverse of that of Favignana: instead of making an artificial swarm, he forms, so to speak, only an early natural swarm.
He carries the hive destined for this purpose to a dark place where he has already brought the one intended to receive the swarm; the cylindrical shape of his straw hives facilitates the work which consists in driving a part of the bees with the queen from the old hive to the new; the old hive is then returned to its stand so that it may be repeopled by all those returning from the fields, and the new one is established at a suitable distance from it in the apiary; this swarm has a queen and can prosper without help, and enjoys the advantage of the blooming of fruit trees, which is not usually enjoyed by natural swarms. For the details I refer to Lombard's work itself, which is of essential utility to every cultivator of bees.
This method being founded, as is shown, on the production of a queen in a hive containing only brood, farther confirms Schirach's doctrine, since its long practice has always been attended with success.
Thus experiment concurs with theory in demonstrating that the larva of a bee may become a queen or a worker, because in either of these modes, it is a female possessing either the physical qualities of maternity in the fecundity of queens, or the conservative properties, such as love, care and solicitude for the young displayed by the workers. This dividing of industry, and courage on one side, with prodigious fecundity on the other, this division originating from the mystery of the education of the larvae, is one of the finest subjects for meditation which natural history affords; we owe to Mr. Schirach's perseverance and perspicacity one of the most curious discoveries that have brought honor upon science; this fact, of which we have given material proofs, throws a great light upon the phenomenon of the development of organs in living beings, and belongs with the greatest researches of physiologists.
## Letter upon the analysis of wax glands
By Miss Jurine
Sir, You have desired me to seek in the bees the organs which produce wax; in order to inform you I had to examine the parts which rest upon the segments of the abdomen, where the wax plates are found; compare these parts with those of the female bumblebees (bremus) which also produce a waxy substance, without having, like the bees, glands in which it is moulded; establish a similar comparison with the females of some other hypneropters that do not secrete wax, and lastly ascertain whether there are any great differences between queens, males and workers in the structure of these organs.
On carefully removing the four wax segments of a worker, one discovers an adipose membrane, interspersed with trachea, and exactly similar to that which had been recognized by Swammerdam, under the upper segments of the abdomen; this membrane is held under each ring by six little bundles of muscles. Since this membrane is found under all the segments, while wax appears only in the lower ones, it is not presumed to be the secretory organ. To ascertain this, I examined the abdomen of the violet bee (syloceopa violacea), and of two species of wasps, and found this membrane existing in the same way.
I examined afterwards the internal surface of the wax segments, and discovered a whitish membrane which coated only the wax-producing parts; I removed this readily by maceration, and placing it under a microscope, it appeared to consist of a pretty net of very small hexagonal meshes, full of a liquid as thick as syrup. If this net work was the organ of wax secretion, I could expect to find it under the same segments of the abdomen of bumblebees, and it was there indeed; with this difference, that it occupied all their anterior half.
In order easily to perceive this membrane, which is sometimes indistinet, we must select bees that are building their combs; as it is so full of whitish matter, then, that it might be taken for scales of wax.
Detaching the net-work from the ring, to ascertain whether it contained real wax, or only a preliminary preparation for it, I placed it in a vessel, in order to compare it with scales of wax placed into another vessel; and poured boiling water over both; the scales of wax melted while no waxy particle escaped from the former; being but little pleased with this experiment I repeated it twice; but the result was the same, although I had broken the meshes of this net-work in several places. If the existence of this network was to be considered as an initial step towards the discovery of the wax-seereting organs, it was necessary to discover the vessels communeing with it, and how the wax transduced from the abdomen; for this purpose I dissected a great number of bees, and could only see minute tracheee, communicating immediately with the net-work. In the hope of succeeding better with another plan, I fed some bees on honey colored with lac, but this substance did not reach farther than the digestive organs. I tried injections of mercury in these same organs, with no better success; unable to discover any other vessel, I conjectured that the material of which wax was formed might be supplied by a transudation of the juices of the stomach, which is very much gorged when bees work in wax. To clear my doubts, I examined it in several wax workers, and by repeatedly and gently pressing it, while I avoided rupturing it, I succeeded in causing half of its contents to flow into the abdominal cavity; I tasted this and found in it a sweet and saccharine flavor: these bees having been afterwards exposed to the heat of a moderate fire, this liquid assumed the consistence of dried syrup. Bees having several means of obtaining such a pressure upon their stomach, may it not be attained with similar effects, and may not this liquid reach the hexagonal net-work where it receives a preparation suitable for its conversion into wax?
The researches which I made, to discern how the wax or the liquid found within the hexagonal net-work passed from the inside to the outside of the body, had no greater success: I could not find any opening, either in the horny part of the segment which is lined with this net or in the membrane which unites the rings; but although I had not seen such an opening, should I conclude that there was none? In this uncertainty I made the following experiments: Among some bees that had just been killed by a brimstone fumigation, I selected such as showed scales of wax; after having fastened them on their back on a board, I stretched their abdomen in order to remove the wax plates more easily; then, pressing the wax producing segments repeatedly with the head of a needle, I saw their receptacle insensibly moistened with a liquid, of the consistence of syrup, observed nowhere besides: when the bees in this condition were exposed to moderate heat, it acquired still greater consistence, however without assuming a waxy appearance.
I repeated this experiment on bees that had been dead several days, and were somewhat dried; the scales broke into fragments when I tried to remove them; by the simple expedient of pressing the wax segments several times, I succeeded in obtaining them entire, which I could ascribe only to the oozing of the syrupy matter which I had noticed in the previous experiment.
The comparison of the abdomen of the queens with that of the workers yielded the following modifications: The reticulated membrane, which in the latter occupies only the wax segments, is replaced in the queens by a membrane which extends over the anterior two-thirds of each segment; its consistency is so fine and delicate that it may only be seen with a microscope; after having removed it, I noticed that the scale exhibited a hexagonal tissue much more decided in the half of the segment corresponding with the wax organs of the worker than in the posterior half. While trying to remove what I thought to be a second membrane, I ascertained that it was the scale itself which was thus organized; this led me to a closer inspection of the scale of the wax segments of the worker which I found perfectly smooth in the part where the wax receptacles are situated, and resembling that of the queen throughout the rest of the segment.
As to the difference between the males and the workers, it consists in the following: The drones are entirely deprived of the fatty membrane and the hexagonal net-work; in their place one sees only very thick muscular fibres, through which tracheee exist which are disposed as in the worker; the scale of the male segments displays the same hexagonal tissue as that of the queen.21
21See Plate III. A is a worker segment, B that of a queen, C that of a drone. Figs. 4, 5, 6, show the same segments in profile.
## Extract from the MEMOIR by JOHN HUNTER
On Beeswax, Translated From the English.
"In explaining in a new way the formation of beeswax, I shall prove that it could not have the origin which it was supposed to have. I shall first remark that the materials from which the combs are composed are in a different state from that of the stamen dust of any vegetable whatever.
"The substance which the bees bring home on their legs, and which is the feecundating dust of flowers, has always been considered as the material from which wax is composed; some authors have even called _vox_ the little pellets which our bees bring in from the fields.
"Reaumur was of that opinion; I made several experiments in order to ascertain whether there was in this product a quantity of oil sufficient to account for the quantity of wax formed from it, and to learn whether it actually contained oil; I held one near a candle; it burnt but without the smell of wax, and emitted the same smell as stamen dust when exposed to fire.
"I remarked that this substance was of different colors on the legs of different bees; but always of the same color on both legs of the same bee; whereas the shade of a new made comb is uniform. I observed that the bees of old hives where the combs are complete, gather this substance with more activity, than those inhabiting new hives where they are only begun, which would hardly be the case were it the elements of wax. We may observe also that, when we place bees in a new hive, they spend two or three days before bringing any pellets on their legs, and that it is only after that interval of time that they gather it. Why? Because during those first days they have had time to build cells in which this substance may be stored; a few eggs have been laid and after they are hatched the worms will need this food which will be ready for them, and which will not be lacking if the weather should be moist and the bees became unable to gather it outside.