Identifier: veterannaturalis00richuoft (find matches)
Title: A veteran naturalist : being the life and work of W.B. Tegetmeier
Year: 1916 (1910s)
Authors: Richardson, E. W. (Edmund William), b. 1861
Subjects: Tegetmeier, W. B. (William Bernhard), 1816-1912
Publisher: London : Witherby
Contributing Library: Gerstein - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ained by the flattening togetherof the convex surfaces, in a transition whichdid not necessarilv involve any familiaritv withthe principles of geometry. In short, the beesmake the cells cylindrical and the pressure ofcircumstances (or the circumstance of pressure)makes them six-sided. Apiarists and studentsneed hardly, I suppose, be reminded that thetheory whose truth Tegetmeier demonstrated hadpreviously been formulated by Buffon ; but theFrench naturalist had failed to prove his pointby actual demonstration, and his theory washeld in scorn bjr the upholders of the geometricalformation of their cells by bees. Buffon endea-voured to explain the hexagonal form of thecells by the uniform pressure of a great numberof bees all working at the same time, exertedequally in all directions in a limited space. Heillustrated his theory by supposing a number ofsimilar cylinders compressed together, and takingthe form of hexagonal prisms by the uniformexpansion of each cell. Undoubtedly Buffon was
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- — o — — - To e: ;, <5 -c: pit ?- w J (Factum p.47. THE BEE-MASTER 47 right in his conception of the original form ofthe cell being cylindrical, but it remained forTegetmeier, and Darwin following his example,to prove the fact by actual experiment. In his garden at Wood Green, the bee-masterhad, for the purposes of experiment, erected ashed with a bench against the wall, to carrythe hives which were placed with their entrancescorresponding to holes cut in the planking.Thus the work of the bees could be studiedwithout disturbing them in their incomings andoutgoings. The observation hives describedin the paper read before the British Associationwere perfected only after considerable pains hadbeen taken and ingenuity exercised in theirconstruction. Leaving Wood Green, however (inthe year 1856), Tegetmeier settled at MuswellHill, where he found more suitable premises anda more commodious garden. Here the ApiarianSociety of London, of which he was then thehon. secretary, erected

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