Curiosities & wonders > New observations on the natural history of bees

378 MODIFICATIONS OF THE
general rules in the great code of nature, or
how animals of restricted faculties can act
in some circumstances, as if they could in¬
terpret the design of the Legislator.
Every thing connected with the fabrica¬
tion and use of combs has been skilfully
combined. Cells turned downwards, like
those of wasps, would not have suited bees,
for they have to store up a fluid. Perhaps
the figure of these innumerable minute
honey-pots, covering both surfaces of the
comb, together with the affinity between their
contents and wax, retains the liquid from
escaping. The combs hang parallel to each
other, and are separated by passages but a
few lines wide. This position is not one of
the least difficult subjects of explanation;
nor would it be practicable, did we conceive
that their foundation was laid simultaneously
by a number of workers, Blocks of wax are
not reared here and there at the same time.
A single worker deposits the materials in
what seems the suitable direction: it de¬
parts : another replaces it: the block rises ;
and the bees sculpture its opposite faces al¬
ternately. But scarcely are some rows of
cells constructed, when other twro blocks si¬
milar to the first are established, one on