Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 November 1882 — Instincts of Bees. [ARTICLE]

Instincts of Bees.

Mr. J. M. Hicks in the Grange Bulletin argues thus on the above subject: It is not easy to draw a line of distinction between the u>„ velous instincts of bees (as so oalled by man) and the reasoning faculty of the human family. Reaumur, the great French naturalist, once observed a bee consultation over a large snail which had crawled into their hive. They went to work, and with propolis, a gum gathered from certain trees, and invaluable to their housekeeping, the bees first glued the snail shell to the glass pane of the hive, and then covered the whole mouth of the shell with a thick coating of the substance, hermatically sealing up their enemy and burying it alive. We ask is tliis an act of instinct or of perfect judgment, emanating as it naturally does with man, if brought into contact with a loathsome object which he could not otherwise manage ? In a gambling saloon—One of the bystanders excl ims: “ItaWeba k one louis.” The banker replies severelv: “Pardon, monsieur, but you have not deposited anvthinr.” “O, then Til take back what I said. “—Paris Figaro. „