he substance or
jelly which bees commonly collect around their new hatched worms.
Solicitous to learn its origin, and conjecturing that it might be the
male prolific fluid, he began to watch the motions of every drone in the
hive, on purpose to seize the moment when they would bedew the eggs. He
assures us, that he saw several insinuate the posterior part of the body
into the cells, and there deposit the fluid. After frequent repetition
of the first, he entered on a long series of experiments. He confined a
number of workers in glass bells along with a queen and several males.
They were supplied with pieces of comb containing honey, but no brood.
He saw the queen lay eggs, which were bedewed by the males, and from
which larvae were hatched, consequently, he could not hesitate advancing
as a fact demonstrated, that male bees fecundate the queen's eggs in
the manner of frogs and fishes, that is, after they are produced.

There was something very specious in this explanation: the experiments
on which it was founded seemed correct; and it afforded a satisfactory
reason for the prodigious number of males in a hive. At the same time,
the author had neglected to answer one strong objection. Larvae appear
when there are no drones. From the month of September until April, hives
are generally destitute of males, yet, notwithstanding their absence,
the queen then lays fertile eggs. Thus, the prolific fluid cannot be
required to impregnate them, unless we can suppose that it is necessary
at a certain time of the year, while at every other season it is
useless.

To discover the truth amidst these facts apparently so contradictory, I
wished to repeat Mr Debraw's experiments, and to observe more precaution
than he himself had done. First, I sought for the fluid, which he
supposes the seminal, in cells containing eggs. Several were actually
found with that appearance; and, during the first days of observation,
neither my assistant nor myself doubted the reality of the discovery.
But we afterwards found it an illusion arising from the reflection of
the light, for nothing like a fluid was visible, except when the solar
rays reached the bottom of the cells. Fragments of the coccoons of
worms, successively hatched, commonly cover the bottom; and, as they are
shining, it may easily be conceived that, when much illuminated, an
illusory effect results from the light. We proved it by the strictest
examination, for no vestiges of a fluid were