CHAPTER XXXIV. ON THE ARCHITECTURE OF BEES. "Quel abime aux yeux du sage qu'une ruche d'abeilles ! Quel sagesse profonde se cache dans cet abime! Quel philosophe osera le fonder!"-Bonnet. THE Combs of a bee-hive comprise a congeries of hexagonal cells, formed by the bees, as receptacles for honey or for embryo bees. A honeycomb is allowed to be one of the most striking achievements of insect industry, and an admirable specimen of insect architecture. It has attracted the admiration of the contemplative philosopher in all ages, and awakened speculation not only in the naturalist, but also in the mathematician : so regular, so perfect, is the structure of the cells, that it satisfies every condition of a refined problem in geometry. Still a review of their proceedings will lead to the conclusion, as HUBER has observed, that "the geometrical relations, which apparently embellish the productions of bees, are rather the necessary result of their mode of proceeding, than the principle by which their labour is guided." "We must therefore conclude, that the bees, although they act geometrically, under stand neither the rules nor the principles of the arts which they practise so skilfully, and that the geometry is not in the bee, but in the great' Geometrician who made the bee, and made all things in number, weight and measure*." Before the time of HUBER, no naturalist had seen the commencement of the comb, nor traced the several steps of its progress. After many attempts, he at length succeeded in attaining the desired object, by preventing the bees from forming their usual impenetrable curtain, by suspending themselves from the top of the hive; in short, he obliged them to build upwards, and was thereby enabled, by means of a glass window, to watch every variation and progressive step in the construction of comb. Each comb in a hive is composed of two ranges of cells backed against each other: these cells, looking at them as a whole, may be said to have one common base, though no one cell is opposed directly to another. This base or partition between the double row of cells is so disposed as to form a pyramidal cavity at the bottom of each, as will be explained presently. The mouths of the cells, thus ranged on each side of a comb, open into tro parallel streets (there being a continued series of combs in every well filled hive). These streets * Reid. are sufficiently contracted to avoid waste of room and to preserve a proper warmth, yet wide enough to allow the passage of two bees abreast. Apertures through different parts of the combs are reserved to form near roads, for crossing from street to street, whereby much time is saved to the bees. "These in firm phalanx ply their twinkling feet, EVANS. The bees, as has been already observed, build their cells of an hexangular form, having six equal sides, with the exception of the first or uppermost row, the shape of which is an irregular pentagon, the roof of the hive forming one of the members of the pentagon, thus: "There are only three possible figures of the cells," says DR. REID," which can make them all equal and similar, without any useless interstices. These are the equilateral triangle, the square and the regular hexagon. It is well known to mathematicians that there is not a fourth way possible, in which a plane may be cut into little spaces that shall be equal, similar, and regular, without leaving any interstices.” Of these three geometrical figures, the hexagon most completely unites the prime requisites for insect architecture. The truth of this proposition was perceived by PAPPUs, an eminent Greek philosopher and mathematician, who lived at Alexandria in the reign of Theodosius the Great, and its adoption by bees in the construction of honey-comb was noticed by that ancient geometrician. These requisites are; First, Economy of materials. There are no useless partitions in a honey-comb, each of the six lateral pannels of one cell forms also one of the pannels of an adjoining cell; and of the three rhombs which form the pyramidal base of a cell, each contributes one-third towards the formation of the bases of three opposing cells, the bottom or centre of every cell resting against the point of union of three pannels that are at the back of it. Secondly, Economy of room; no interstices being left between adjoining cells. Thirdly, The greatest possible capacity or internal space, consistent with the two former desiderata. Fourthly, Economy of materials and œconomy of room produce œconomy of labour. And in addition to these advantages, the cells are constructed in the strongest manner possible, considering the quantity of materials employed. Both the sides and bases are so exquisitely thin, that three or four placed on each other are not thicker than a leaf of common writing-paper; each cell, separately weak, is strengthened by its coincidence with other cells, and the entrance is fortified with an additional ledge or border of wax, to prevent its bursting from the struggles of the bee-nymph, or from the ingress and egress of the labourers. This entrance border is at least three times as thick as the sides of the cell, and thicker at the angles than elsewhere, which prevents the mouth of the cell from being regularly hexagonal, though the interior is perfectly so. "On books deep poring, ye pale sons of toil, Who waste in studious trance the midnight oil, Than the nice symmetry of these small cells, I have just adverted to the ingenuity of the bees in thickening, and thereby strengthening the mouths of the cells. Additional strength is also |