The Life of the Bee

by Maeterlinck, Maurice

• ISBN13: 9780898753752
• ISBN10: 0898753759
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-06-01
• Publisher: Univ Pr of the Pacific

Summary

The real history of the bee begins in the seventeenth century, with the discoveries of the great Dutch savant Swammerdam. It is well, however, to add this detail, but little known: before Swammerdam a Flemish naturalist named Clutius had arrived at certain important truths, such as the sole maternity of the queen and her possession of the attributes of both sexes, but he had left these unproved. Swammerdam founded the true methods of scientific investigation; he invented the microscope, contrived injections to ward off decay, was the first to dissect the bees, and by the discovery of the ovaries and the oviduct definitely fixed the sex of the queen, hitherto looked upon as a king, and threw the whole work, begun in a dazzling sunshine, received its crown in the darkness. To be comprehensive, one should mention also the somewhat subsequent works and investigations of Charles Bonnet and Schirach (who solved the enigma of the royal egg); lets keep to the broad lines, and pass at once to Francois Huber, the master and classic of contemporary apiarian science.

Author Biography

Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949) was a Belgian writer of poetry, a wide variety of essays, and symbolic dramas, including Pelleas et Melisande (1892). In 1911 he won the Nobel Prize for literature

Table of Contents

On the Threshold of the Hive	3	(34)
The Swarm	37	(94)
The Foundation of the City	131	(28)
The Life of the Bee	159	(74)
The Young Queens	233	(62)
The Nuptial Flight	295	(52)
The Massacre of the Males	347	(16)
The Progress of the Race	363	(60)
Appendix	423