fuitors fhall proceed in a fummary way, examining the parties and witneffes on oath, without the formal procefs antiently ufed; and fhall make fuch order therein as they fhall judge agreeable to confcience. 4. That no plaints shall be removed out of this court, by any procefs whatsoever; but the determination herein fhall be final. 5. That if any action be brought in any of the fuperior courts against a perfon refident in Middlesex, for a debt or contract, upon the trial whereof the jury fhall find lefs than forty fhillings damages, the plaintiff fhall recover no cofts, but fhall pay the defendants double cofts; unless upon fome fpecial circumftances, to be certified by the judge who tried it. 6. Laftly, a table of very moderate fees is prefcribed and fet down in the act; which are not to be exceeded upon any account whatsoever. This is a plan entirely agreeable to the conftirution and genius of the nation calculated to prevent a multitude of vexatious actions in the fuperior courts, and at the fame time to give honest creditors an opportunity of recovering fmall fums; which now they are frequently deterred from by the expence of a suit at law: a plan which, in fhort, wants only to be generally known, in order to its univerfal reception.' The laft fpecies of private courts Mr. Blackftone mentions, is the chancellor's courts in the two univerfities of England, of which he gives us a hiftorical deduction. An appeal lies from the chancellor's court at Oxford to delegates appointed by the congregation; from thence to other delegates of the house of convocation; and if they all three concur in the fame fentence it is final, at least by the ftatutes of the univerfity, according to the rule of the civil law. We have thus, for the benefit of fuch of our readers as are not profeft lawyers, reviewed the hiftorical part of this excellent work. As to the fcientifical part, it is adapted both to the theory and practice of the profeffion. The learned author treats of all the wrongs and inconveniences which can arise to the fubjects of England from the abufe or difregard of the law, together with the remedies and forms of proceeding. It is paying Mr. Blackstone too poor a compliment to call him the English Cujas, or the modern Coke, as perhaps neither of thefe authors have equalled him in that perfpicuity and order, which has been fo much wanting in the ftudy of the law. He has cleared it from technical terms; fo that we can venture to affert, that every gentleman of tolerable good fenfe, though he is no fcholar, by carefully perufing this work, may become no contemptible lawyer. 150g od# góá * V. A Treatise on the Management of Bees; wherein is contained the Natural Hiftory of thofe Infects; with the various Methods of > cultivating them, both Ancient and Modern, and the improved Treatment of them. To which are added, the Natural History of Wafps and Hornets, and the Means of deftroying them. IllufStrated with Copper Plates. By Thomas Wildman. 410 Pro Jos. 6d. Cadell.n T HERE is fcarce any creature that has fo much drawn the attention of naturalifts as the bees, or from the induftry of which mankind receive fuch extraordinary advantage: their regular provifion for futurity, the curious workmanship of their combs, and the polity of their government, have been the fubject of admiration through every age. In refpect, however, to the existence of fuch an inftinctive government, we muft acknowledge, for our own part, that, notwithstanding the opinion of preceding naturalifts, we had ever been inclined to a degree of fcepticifin; regarding it rather as poetical fiction, or the fuggeftion of fancy, than the réal obfervation of nature, till we found it afcertained by experiment. It has long been regretted, both on principles of humanity and intereft, that no method could be introduced of procuring from thefe induftrious creatures the fruit of their labour without the deftruction of themselves. The world muft, therefore, receive with pleasure a propofal which is calculated to fupply this defect, and is now offered to the public, by the author of the performance before us, whofe command over bees has been proved by repeated experiments, and excited univerfal admiration. As the obfervations and facts exhibited by this writer are the beft authenticated of any on the fubject, we fhall present our readers with an abstract of such parts of the Treatife as lay the greateft claim to attention, either in point of curiofity or importance. The first article, then, which we take notice of, is the origin of bees. at may The bee that is named the king is in reality the mother of all the others. She is fo prolific, that, as far as one can judge, The may produce in one year eight or ten thoufand young ones; for the is commonly a part of the year fingly in a hive, and it the end of fummer the hive is as full of bees as in the be ginning of the fpring, yet there goes out every year a fwarm, and fometimes or three of ten or twelve thousand each; it follows, therefore, that this royal bee muft produce a part of thofe different fwarms: I fay, a part, because it is pomble that the new king, who goes out with the fresh fwarm, may produce likewife a part of them before the migration. The royal bee is most commonly concealed in the most fecret part of her palace, and is never vifible but when the would lay her young in the combs that are exposed to fight. "It was on those rare occafions that we perceived her; indeed the is not even then always visible, for most commonly there is at thofe times a great number of bees, that fastening themselves one to another, hang down in the form of a veil from the top to the bottom of the hive, which hinders your' fight and they do not retire till the bee hath laid her young Whenever the hath appeared to us unveiled, he was always attended by ten or twelve of the ftouteft bees amongst the common fort, that make a kind of retinue, and follow her wherever she goes with a fedate and grave tread, Præterea regem non fic Egyptus, et ingens Illum admirantur; et omnes Circumftant fremitu denfo, flipantq; frequentes. 1 " her Before the lays her young, fhe puts, for a moment, head into the cell where the defigns to lay them; if she finds this cell empty, and there is not in it either honey, wax, or any embrio, she turns herself immediately to introduce the pofterior part of her body into the fame cell, and finks into it till the touches the bottom. At the fame time the bees, her attendants, who are difpofed in a circle round her, having all their heads turned towards her's, pay a fort of homage with their probofcis and feet, carefs her, and give her all kinds of entertainment, which lasts however but a very little while ; bafter that the bee leaves the cell, and you may difcern a little white egg, very small, about half a line long, or three quar ters of a line at most, yet four or five times longer than it is big, a little more pointed at one extremity than at the other, and planted by its leaft extremity on the bafis in the folid angle of the cell. This egg is formed of a membrane, thin, white, fmooth, and full of a whitish liquor. 事 Immediately after the pregnant bee hath laid an egg in one cell, the g goes with all the same circumstances, and escorted by the fame number of bees, to lay another egg in a neighbouring cell; and we have seen her lay in this manner eight or ten in different cells fucceffively one after another. After having finished her delivery the withdraws, attended by the fame fame bees, into the fecret apartments of the hive; where she is loft out of fight, sichung st The egg which remains on the basis of the cell continues four days in that state without changing figure or fituation; but after the four days you fee it changed in the manner of the caterpillar, divided into several rings, laid and applied on the fame bafis, and twisted round, fo that, the two extremities touch each other. It is then surrounded by a little liquor, which the bees take care at the end of the four days to put in the folid angle of the bafis. We could never difcover the nature of this liquor, on account of its small quantity; which hath left us in fome doubt, whether it might be honey that the bees carry thither for the nourishment of the embrio, or rather some matter proper to fecundate the fperm; for it ap peared to us more whitish, lefs liquid, and less transparent than honey. • Of whatever nature this first liquor may be with which the little worm is furrounded, it is certain that afterwards the bees bring it honey for nourishment. In proportion as it grows they fupply it with a greater quantity of food, quite to the eighth day from its birth, when it is increased in fuch manner that it occupies the whole breadth of the cell, and a part of its length. After that, the care of the bees for the young ones ceales, for they ftop up with wax all the cells, where thefe worms continue still shut up for twelve days. During that time, there happen to the embrios inclosed divers changes; which we have discovered by opening these cells on different days from the time they had been stopped. At first the worms change their fituation, and from being twisted round, as they were before on the bafis of the cell, they extend themselves along its whole length, and place themselves with the head turned towards the mouth of the cell; the head of the worm begins to thew itfelf a little, and you fees a small extension, which is, in my opinion, the beginning of the probofcis. You fee likewife upon the origin of the head a black point, and at a little distance from this point a black freak upon the back, which doth not reach quite to the ex-c tremity of the worm the fuft lineaments of the feet likewife appear, but very small. 2 T After the head is formed, and the probofcis lengthened, all the other parts difplay themfelves fucceffively; fo that the whole worn is changed into an aurelia or nymph, which ise. they almoft perfect, except that it is yet white and soft, and that it hath not that kind of cruft with which it is covered afterwards.. •Gotho ko lang T Dr By this transformation the worm ftrips himself of a white and very fine pellicle, which is fo perfectly attached to the internal fides of the cells, that it takes even the turns and bendings of the angles as well of the bafis as of the fides, and appears to form but one body with them, on wee wed wife gd: • The bee being stripped of this pellicle, and all the parts unfolded by degrees, and changed through fucceffive colours from a yellow to a black, arrives at perfection by the twentieth day from the birth. From thence the endeavours to iffue from the cell, and makes the opening herself, by cutting round with her jaws or talons the cover that stopped up the mouth of the cell, which the bees had made to inclofe her. The new bee, when she firft quits the cell, appears a little drowsy ; but the foon affumes the natural agility, for we have seen her the fame day iffue from the cell, and return from the fields loaded with wax like the reft. You may distinguish these young bees by the colour, which is a little more blackish, and by the hairs, which are somewhat whiter. As foon as the young bee hath fallied from the cell, there come immediately two of the old bees; one draws out the cover, kneads, and employs the wax elsewhere of which it was compofed; the other labours to repair the breach; for the cell having been difordered by the new-flown bee, an old one reftores its fymmetry, gives it its former hexagonal figure, fortifies it with the ufual border, and cleanses it by taking away the little pellicles of the young bee which have remained there.': Wedhall now relate the grand difcovery of the method of taking away the honey without deftroying the bees, which is as follows: „Remove the hive from which you would take the wax and honey into a room, into which admit but little light, that it may at first appear to the bees as if it was late in the evening, Gently invert the hive, placing it between the frames of a chair, or other fteady fupport, and cover it with an empty hive, keeping that fide of the empty hive raised a little, which is next the window, to give the bees fufficient light to get up intuit. While you hold the empty hive fteadily fupported on the edge of the full hive, between your fide and yours left carm, keep ftriking with the other hand all round the full hive from top to bottom, in the manner of beating lại drum, so that the bees may be frightened by sthes continued noife from a all squarters ; and they will inconfequence mount but of the full hive into the empty one! Repeat the ftrokes rather quick than frong round the hive, till all the bees are got out of it, (0191 min 01 2ɔbil adi no abun a synd zwhich |