the Osmia was so lavish. What a magnificent argument
in favour of the reasoning-power of animals! To find geometry, the
surveyor's art, in an Osmia's tiny brain! An insect that begins by
taking the measurements of the room to be constructed, just as any
master-builder might do! Why, it's splendid, it's enough to cover with
confusion those horrible sceptics who persist in refusing to admit the
animal's 'continuous little flashes of atoms of reason!'

O common-sense, veil your face! It is with this gibberish about
continuous flashes of atoms of reason that men pretend to build up
science to-day! Very well, my masters; the magnificent argument with
which I am supplying you lacks but one little detail, the merest trifle:
truth! Not that I have not seen and plainly seen all that I am relating;
but measuring has nothing to do with the case. And I can prove it by
facts.

If, in order to see the Osmia's nest as a whole, we split a reed
lengthwise, taking care not to disturb its contents; or, better still,
if we select for examination the string of cells built in a glass tube,
we are forthwith struck by one detail, namely, the uneven distances
between the partitions, which are placed almost at right angles to the
axis of the cylinder. It is these distances which fix the size of
the chambers, which, with a similar base, have different heights and
consequently unequal holding-capacities. The bottom partitions, the
oldest, are farther apart; those of the front part, near the orifice,
are closer together. Moreover, the provisions are plentiful in the
loftier cells, whereas they are niggardly and reduced to one-half or
even one-third in the cells of lesser height.

Here are a few examples of these inequalities. A glass tube with a
diameter of 12 millimetres (.468 inch.--Translator's Note.), inside
measurement, contains ten cells. The five lower ones, beginning with the
bottom-most, have as the respective distances between their partitions,
in millimetres:

11, 12, 16, 13, 11. (.429,.468,.624,.507,.429 inch.--Translator's Note.)

The five upper ones measure between their partitions:

7, 7, 5, 6, 7. (.273,.273,.195,.234,.273 inch.--Translator's Note.)

A reed-stump 11 millimetres (.429 inch.--Translator's Note.) across the
inside contains fifteen cells; and the respective distances between the
partitions of those cells, starting from the bottom, are:

13, 12, 12, 9, 9, 11, 8, 8, 7, 7, 7, 6, 6, 6, 7. (.507,.468,.468,
.351,.351