ill received. I never could succeed in
making them adopt her, but by allowing an interval of twenty or
twenty-four hours to elapse. Then they seemed to have forgot their own
queen; and respectfully received any female put in her place. M. de
Reaumur, on the contrary, asserts, that should the original queen be
removed, and another presented, this new one will be perfectly well
received from the beginning. As evidence of this assertion, he gives the
detail of an experiment which must be read in his work, for I shall here
give only an extract of it{L}. He induced four or five hundred bees to
leave their native hive and enter a glass box, containing a small piece
of comb towards the top. At first they were in great agitation; and, to
pacify or console them, he presented a new queen. From this moment, the
tumult ceased, and the stranger queen was received with all respect.

I do not dispute the truth of this experiment; but, in my opinion, it
does not warrant the conclusion that M. de Reaumur deduces from it. His
apparatus removed the bees too much from their natural condition, to
allow him to judge of their instinct and dispositions. In other
situations, he has himself observed, that these animals, reduced to
small numbers, lost their industry and activity, and feebly continued
their ordinary labours. Thus their instinct is affected by every
operation that too much diminishes their number. To render such an
experiment truly conclusive, it must be made in a populous hive; and on
removing the native queen, a stranger must immediately be substituted in
her place. Had this been done, I am fully persuaded, that M. de Reaumur
would have seen the bees imprison the usurper, confine her at least
twelve or fifteen hours among them, and frequently suffocate her: nor
would he have witnessed any favourable reception before an interval of
twenty-four hours after removal of the original queen. No variation has
occurred in my experiments regarding this fact. Their number, and the
attention bestowed on them, make me presume they merit your confidence.

M. de Reaumur, in another passage of the same Memoir, affirms, that
_bees, which have a queen they are satisfied with, are nevertheless
disposed to give the best possible reception to any female that seeks
refuge among them_. In the preceding letter, I have related my
experiments on this head: their success has been very different from
that of M. de Reaumur's. I have proved that the workers