the
space of eleven months is necessary for the male eggs to acquire that
degree of increment they must have attained when laid. This consequence,
which to me seems immediate, renders the problem insoluble. How can the
eggs, which should grow slowly for eleven months, suddenly acquire their
full expansion in forty-eight hours, when fecundation has been retarded
twenty-one days, and by the effect of this retardation alone? Observe, I
beseech you, that the hypothesis of successive expansion is not
gratuitous; it rests on the principles of sound philosophy. Besides, for
conviction that it is well founded, we have only to look at the figures
given by Swammerdam of the ovaries of the queen bee. There we see eggs
in that part of the oviducts contiguous to the vulva, much farther
advanced, and larger than those contained in the opposite part.
Therefore the difficulty remains in full force: it is an abyss where I
am lost.

The only known fact bearing any relation to that now described, is the
state of certain vegetable seeds, which, although extremely well
preserved, lose the faculty of germination from age. The eggs of workers
may also preserve, only for a very short time, the property of being
fecundated by the seminal fluid; and, after this period, which is about
fifteen or eighteen days, become disorganised to that degree, that they
can no longer be animated by it. I am sensible that the comparison is
very imperfect; besides, it explains nothing, nor does it even put us
on the way of making any new experiments. I shall add but one reflection
more.

Hitherto no other effect has been observed from the retarded
impregnation of animals, but that of rendering them absolutely sterile.
The first instance of a female still preserving the faculty of
engendering males, is presented by the queen bee. But as no fact in
nature is unique, it is most probable that the same peculiarity will
also be found in other animals. An extremely curious object of research
would be to consider insects in this new point of view, I say _insects_,
for I do not conceive that any thing analogous will be found in other
species of animals. The experiments now suggested would necessarily
begin with insects the most analogous to bees; as wasps, humble bees,
mason bees, all species of flies, and the like. Some experiments might
also be made on butterflies; and, perhaps, an animal might be found
whose retarded fecundation would be attended with the same effec