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

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MODIFICATIONS OF THE
subordination, are subject to no discipline.
A great many bees work on the same comb
indeed, but they are not guided by a simul¬
taneous impulse, as might be conceived,
without studying their proceedings from
the outset. The impulse is successive. A
single bee begins each partial operation, and
several others substitute their efforts, tend¬
ing to the same end. Each apparently acts
individually, either as directed by the bees
preceding it, or by the state in which it
finds the work which it is to continue. If
any thing can presume consent almost una¬
nimous, it is the inaction of the rest of the
colony while a single worker proceeds to
determine the position of the comb. After
others assist it in extending the block,
they cease; but a single individual of a dif¬
ferent profession, if the word may be allow¬
ed, comes to sketch the bottom of a cell, tbe
preparation for another kind of work. It
is a base or foundation for establishing the
whole edifice. A delicate sense of feeling
obtains through the partition the situa¬
tion of the margin of the opposite cavity,
which aids the worker in the proper divi¬
sion of the bottom of the new cells. But
it is not by means of the margin only that