on, and hence that there is no other explanation of their existence than that they are specially created—that is, created in opposition to law.
To simplify the initial inquiry, we will suppose that workers differ from females only in that they are not fertile, the secondary differences being reserved for discussion toward the end of this paper.
That a creature may develop, it is essential that it be supplied with a sufficiency of food. Even with human beings food is all-important; if with these a sufficiency of mineral ingredients be not assimilated, we have the disease called rickets; insufficiency of vegetable food will cause scurvy; insufficient nutriment dwarfs the body and mind generally. The growing body must have enough material out of which to elaborate tissue, or the tissue, muscle, nerve, bone, can not develop. Now let it be supposed there are two larvæ or grubs of the bee, which under similar conditions will reach similar degrees of development; further suppose that one larva, which may be called A, receives an over-abundance of food, while the other larva, which may be called B, receives a quantity of food just sufficient for its more important wants, what will happen? The larva A will reach its full development—it will be a queen-bee; the larva B, on the other hand, not having food enough for all its wants, and furthermore having within a given time to change its conditions, it must use the nutriment for the building up of its more important organs, must work it up into tissues and structures that are essential to all bees. Its head, body, legs, and wings must be perfected before its reproductive system; the individual must profit before the race; and, if the food is only sufficient for individual functions, the race functions must suffer, the reproductive system must remain in an incipient state.
This conclusion is no mere theory, for among the higher animals, and even with man himself, insufficient nourishment first produces its effects on the reproductive system. Loss of blood induces abortion; badly prepared or insufficient food decreases or entirely checks the production of offspring. The distinction first clearly formulated by Dr. Carpenter is now a commonplace of science: "There is a certain degree of antagonism between the nutritive and reproductive functions, the one being executed at the expense of the other. The reproductive apparatus derives the materials of its operations through the nutritive system, and is entirely dependent on it for the continuance of its functions. It may be universally observed that, when the nutritive functions are particularly active in supporting the individual, the reproductive system is in a corresponding degree undeveloped, and vice versa."
With bees the effects produced by food are clearly shown: a larva which otherwise would turn into a neuter is supplied with a different kind of food and it is converted into a queen. Huber obtained queen bees by placing some of the "royal food" in cells inhabited by the larva? of workers. Kleine performed the same experiment, placed a portion
