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

COMPLETION OF THE CELLS. 411
the bees, under certain circumstances, mixed
it with wax, they gave the name pisso-
ceros to the compound; and how well they
had studied the subject was proved by one
of my experiments.
I immersed some fragments of the com¬
pound taken from the sides of an old hive
in ether, having already found that this fluid
held a very small portion of wax in solution.
Decanting it several times, I concluded that
the whole propolis was dissolved, when the
fluid ceased to colour. Accordingly, the
residue was found to consist of a little white
wax which the bees had mixed with it.
Pliny believed that these insects used a
mixture of wax and propolis in constructing
the fixture or basis of the comb: Reaumur,
on the contrary, thought it only pure
wax. Perhaps the opinion of such emi¬
nent naturalists may be reconciled by the
following facts.
Soon after some new combs had been
finished in a hive, manifest disorder and agi¬
tation prevailed among the bees. They seem¬
ed to attack their own works. The primi¬
tive cells, whose structure w'e had admired,
scarcely were recognizable. Thick and massy
walls, heavy shapeless pillars were substi-