epeat his experiment,
in the manner described, and without greater care or precaution.

I put a virgin queen into a hive, from which all the males were
excluded, but the bees left at perfect liberty. For several days I
visited the hive, and found new hatched worms in it. Here then is the
same result as M. Hattorf obtained? But before deducing the same
consequence from it, we had to ascertain beyond dispute that no male had
entered the hive. Thus, it was necessary to immerse the bees, and
examine each separately. By this operation, we actually found four small
males. Therefore, to render the experiment decisive, not only was it
requisite to remove all the drones, but also, by some infallible method,
to prevent any from being introduced, which the German naturalist had
neglected.

I prepared to repair this omission, by putting a virgin queen into a
hive, from which the whole males were carefully removed; and to be
physically certain that none should enter, a glass tube was adapted at
the entrance of such dimensions that the working bees could freely pass
and repass, but too narrow for the smallest male. Matters continued thus
for thirty days, the workers departing and returning performed their
usual labours: but the queen remained sterile. At the expiration of this
time, her belly was equally slender as at the moment of her origin. I
repeated the experiment several times, and always with the same
consequence.

Therefore, as a queen, rigorously separated from all commerce with the
male, remains sterile, it is evident she cannot impregnate herself, and
M. Hattorf's opinion is ill-founded.

Hitherto, by endeavouring to confute or verify the conjectures of all
the authors who had preceded me, by new experiments, I acquired the
knowledge of new facts, but these were apparently so contradictory as to
render the solution of the problem still more difficult. While
examining Mr. Debraw's hypothesis, I confined a queen in a hive, from
which all the drones were removed; the queen nevertheless was fertile.
When considering the opinion of M. Hattorf on the contrary, I put a
queen, of whose virginity I was perfectly satisfied, in the same
situation, she remained sterile.

Embarrassed by so many difficulties, I was on the point of abandoning
the subject of my researches, when at length by more attentive
reflection, I thought these contradictions might arise from experiments
made indifferently on virgin queens, and on those with wh