. Langstroth on the hive & honey bee. Bees. 40 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HONEY-BEE. The Queen. 93. Although honey-bees have attracted the attention of naturalists for ages, the sex of the inmates of the bee-hive was, for a long time, a mystery. The ancient authors, having noticed in the hive, a bee, larger than the others, and differently shaped, had called it the "King ; ^'S- â 'â ^- 94. To our knowledge, it was an English bee-keeper, Butler; who, first among bee-writers, affirmed in 1609, that the King Bee was really a queen, and that he had seen her deposit eggs. ("Feminine M
. Langstroth on the hive & honey bee. Bees. 40 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HONEY-BEE. The Queen. 93. Although honey-bees have attracted the attention of naturalists for ages, the sex of the inmates of the bee-hive was, for a long time, a mystery. The ancient authors, having noticed in the hive, a bee, larger than the others, and differently shaped, had called it the "King ; ^'S- â 'â ^- 94. To our knowledge, it was an English bee-keeper, Butler; who, first among bee-writers, affirmed in 1609, that the King Bee was really a queen, and that he had seen her deposit eggs. ("Feminine ;) 95. This discovery seems to have passed unnoticed, for Swammerdam, who ascertained the sex of bees by dissection, is held as having been the first to proclaim the sex of the queen-bee. (Leyde, 1737.) A brief extract from the cele- brated Dr. Boerhaave's Memoir of Swammerdam, showing the ardor of this naturalist, in his study of bees, should piit^ to blush the arrogance of those superficial observers, who are too wise to avail themselves of the knowledge of others: "This treatise on Bees proved so fatiguing a performance, that Swammerdam never afterwards recovered even the appear- ance of his former health and vigor. He was most continually- engaged by day in making observations, and as constantly by night in recording them by drawings and suitable explanations. "His daily labor began at six in the morning, when the sun afforded him light enough to survey such minute objects; and from that hour till twelve, he continued without interruption, all the while exposed in the open air to the scorching heat of the sun, bareheaded, for fear of intercepting his sight, and his head in a manner dissolving into sweat under the irresistible ardors of that powerful luminary. And if he desisted at noon, it was only because the strength of his eyes was too much weak- ened by the extraordinary afflux of light, and the use of micro- scopes, to continue any longer upon
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