f the round grains tends in the course of swelling as it
boils to fill up the utmost space that it can, and by the extension
and pressure of all alike they become hexagonal. Each bee wishes to
occupy as much room as possible in its allotted space, therefore as
the bodies of the bees are round or cylindrical, their cells become
hexagonal because of the extension and pressure of all alike."

Here then we see reciprocal obstacles working a wonder, somewhat in
the same way perhaps as the vices of men bring about a general virtue,
so that the race odious, often so far as individuals are concerned, is
tolerable in the mass. Broughman, Kirby, and Spence and others claim
that the observations of soap-bubbles and peas prove nothing in this
connection, for the effect of compression is only to produce irregular
hexagonal forms, and does not explain the earlier form of the base of
the cells.

To this one might rejoin that there are more ways than one of dealing
with the blind law of necessity, for the wasp and the bumble-bee and
many other species in similar circumstances and with the same end in
view, arrive at very different, and manifestly inferior, results.
Indeed it might be said further that even if the bee-cells did conform
to the laws of crystallization as in the case of snow, or Buffon's
soap-bubbles, or boiled peas, they show also in their general
symmetry, in their well-determined angle of inclination, etc., that
there are many other laws not followed by inert matter to which they
also conform.

In order to assure myself that the hexagonal form of the cell was the
outcome of the bee-brain, I cut out from the centre of a honey-comb a
round piece not quite so large as a silver dollar, containing both
brood-cells and honey-cells. I cut into this disc, at the point where
the pyramidal bases of the cells were joined, and I fixed on the base
of the section thus exposed a piece of tin of the same size, and so
stout that the bees could not bend or twist it. Then I replaced the
disc of comb, with the piece of tin as described. One side of the comb
showed, of course, nothing extraordinary, but on the other side was to
be seen a hole at the bottom of which was a round piece of tin
occupying the place of about thirty cells. At first the bees were
disconcerted, and came in crowds to examine and study this wonderful
abyss; for some days they wandered about it in agitation without
coming to any decision. But as I fed them well every