Show BEES WORK IN THE DARK it A lifetime might inight be spent in investigating the mysteries hidden in a beehive arid and still half of the would bo be undiscovered tho the formation of thy the cell lias has long been a celebrated problem for the mathematician whilst tho the changes which the lioney undergoes offer at least an equal interest to the chemist chemi bt every one knows what honey fresh froni from the comb is ia like it is a clear yellow syrup without a trace of solid sugar in it il upon straining however it gradually assumes a chrys appearance it candies as the saying is and ultimately becomes a solid mass of sugar it has not been suspected that this than change ge was due to a photographic action that the same agent which alters the molecular arrangement of the iodine of silver on the excited plate and determines the formation of camphor and iodine crystals in a bottle causes the syrup honey to assume a crystalline form for this however is the case 31 has enclosed honey in ill flasks flacks some of which lie he has kept iu in perfect darkness dai kness whilst others have been exposed to the light the invariable result has been that the sunned portion rapidly cryst alises whilst that kept in the dark daik has remained perfectly liquid we now see why bees are so careful to work in perfect daik ness and why they are arc so careful to obscure the glass windows which are sometimes placed in their hives the existence of their young depends on the liquidity of the saccharine food presented to them and if light were allowed access to this the syrup would gradually acquire a more or less solid consistency it would seal up the cells arid and in all probability prove fatal to the inmates of the hive quarterly journal of science |