small cells in their
place, an operation which restored complete activity among the bees.

The peculiarities of this experiment seem worthy of attention. It proves
that nature does not allow the queen the choice of the eggs she is to
lay. It is ordained that, at a certain time of the year, she shall
produce those of males, and at another time the eggs of workers, and
this order cannot be inverted. We have seen that another fact led me to
the same consequence; and as that was extremely important, I am
delighted to have it confirmed by a new observation. Let me repeat,
therefore, that the eggs are not indiscriminately mixed in the ovaries
of the queen, but arranged so that, at a particular season, she can lay
only a certain kind. Thus, it would be vain at that time of the year,
when the queen should lay the eggs of workers, to attempt forcing her to
lay male eggs, by filling the hives with large cells; for, by the
experiment just described, we learn, that she will rather drop the
workers eggs by chance than deposit them in an unsuitable place; and
that she will not lay the eggs of males. I cannot yield to the pleasure
of allowing this queen discernment or foresight, for I observe a kind of
inconsistency in her conduct. If she refused to lay the eggs of workers
in large cells, because nature has instructed her that their size is
neither proportioned to the size nor necessities of common worms, would
not she also have been instructed not to lay several eggs in one cell?
It seems much easier to rear a worker's worm in a large cell, than to
rear several of the same species in a small one. Therefore, the supposed
discrimination of bees is not very conspicuous. Here the most prominent
feature of industry appears in the common bees. When I supplied them
with a comb of small cells, full of male brood, their activity was
awakened; but instead of bestowing the necessary care on this brood, as
they would have done in every other situation, they destroyed the whole
nymphs and larvae, and cleaned out their cells, that the queen, now
oppressed with the necessity of laying, might suffer no delay in
depositing her eggs. Could we allow them either reason or reflection,
this would be an interesting proof of their affection for her.

The experiment, now detailed at length, not having fulfilled my object
in determining the influence of the size of the cells on that of the
worms, I invented another which proved more successful.

Having sel