Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/761

 WAX

WAX

flioals ; all thefe cafes give the Waves an elevation, which they can never have in their natural ftate.

The great Mr. Boyle has proved by numerous experiments, that the moft violent wind never penetrates deeper than fix foot into the water ; and it fhould feem a natural confluence of this, that the water moved by it can only be elevated to the fame height of fix foot from the level of the furface in a calm ; and this fix feet of elevation being added to the fix of ex- cavation, in the part whence that water fo elevated was raifed, ftiould give twelve foot for the utmoft elevation of a Wave, This is a calculation that does great honour to its author ; for Count Marfigli meafured carefully the elevations of the Waves near Provence, and found that, in a very violent tempeft, they arofe only to feven foot above the natural level of the fea, and this additional foot in height he eafily refolved into the accidental fhocks of the water againft the bottom, which was, in the place he meafured them in, not fo deep as to be out of the way of affecting the Waves ; and he allows that the addi- tion of one fixth of the height of a Wave, from fuch a disturb- ance from the bottom, is a very moderate alteration from what would have been its height in a deep fca, and concludes, that Mr. Boyle's calculation holds perfectly right in deep feas, where the Waves are purely natural, and have no acci- dental caufes to tender them larger than their juft propor- tion

In deep water, under the high fhores of the fame part of France, this author found the natural elevation of the Waves to be only five foot ; but he found alfo that their breaking againfr. rocks, and other accidents to which they were liable in this place, often raifed them to eight foot high. We are not to fuppofe, from this calculation, that no Wave of the fca can rife more than fix foot above its natural level in open and deep water, for Waves immenfely higher than thefe are formed in violent tempefts in the great feas. Thefe, how- ever, are not to be accounted Waves in their natural ftate, but they are fingle Waves formed of many others ; for in thefe wide plains of water, when one Wave is raifed by the wind, and would elevate itfelf up to the exact height of fix foot, and no more, the motion of the water is fo great, and the fuccef- fiun of Waves fo quick, that, during the time this is rifing, it receives into it leveral other Waves, each of which would have been at the fame height with itfelf; thefe run. into the fifft Wave one after another, as it is rifing ; by this means its rife is continued much longer than it naturally would have been, and it becomes terribly great. A number of thefe com- plex Waves ariling together, and being continued in a long iucceffion by the continuation of the (form, make:the Waves fo dangerous to fhips, which the failors in their phraie call mountains high. Marfigli, Hilt. Phyf. de la Mer.

WAV E-Ojfering, among the Jews, a facrifice offered by agi- tation or waving towards the four cardinal points. See the article Agitation.

WAVED, or Wavey, (Cycl.) in heraldry, denotes that the hrft of the family in whofe arms it {lands, acquired his honours for fea fervices, and has this peculiar commemoration of it or- dered in his arms. Nifbet's Heraldry.

WAX [Cycl.) — Before it is poffible to tinderftand the accounts authors give of the manner in which the bee collects its Wax and honey, and forms the cells to depofit the laft fluid in, it Is neceflary to underftand the true ftructure, and know the feveral parts of this little creature.

The anterior p^rt of the head of a bee is triangular, and fome- wliat flat ; it goes tapering from the bafe to the extremity, and the reticular eyes are placed at the fides ; thefe are of an oval figure, one point or end being much larger than the other. The narrower end of each eye is on the lower part of the head, andrencbes almoft to the origin of the teeth ; there is

. a large fpace between the eyes, and this is full of little irregu- larities. The antennas are placed at the two fides of an emi- nence in this part, coming near the eyes ; they are of no very lingular ftructure, but are compofed of feveral joints, and feem of the nature of horn ; they are fo made that they may be eafily folded in two, and they are always found to be fo in dead bees. The head is not very thick, but appears fome- what broad ; and at the upper part there are placed three (mall ihining eyes in a triangular fituation, as is the cafe in many other of the winged infects.

The bee has a trunk and teeth, and the fituation of thefe, at the extremity of the head, has a great fhare in giving that part a triangular figure. The teeth, when they are not in action, meet in a point at their extremities, and form an angle which projects out from the cruftaceous lips. Thefe teetK are a very effential part of the creature, and are not only intended for the common purpofes of eating, but ferve alfo to the great purpofes of erecting the works within the hive. Thefe teeth are pro- perly a fort of grinders, one of which has its origin on one fide of the head, and the other at the fame height on the other ; they are fmaller near their origin than in any other part, and thence grow larger to the extremity, where they are cut off obliquely in fuch a manner, that when their two ends are ap- plied one againfr. the other, they make a fort of angular pair of pincers, which are able to lay very faff, hold of any thing; they are not only capable of meeting in this manner, but they can, upon cccafion, crofs one over the other ; and this is the Sup pi,. Vo l. II,

pofition they are ufually found in when the bee is dead. 'Ehe truncated ends of the teeth have each a femiclrcular cavity* furrounded with hairs ; thefe meeting, when the teeth are clofed^ form a regular cavity, capable of receiving whatever is ground to pieces by the fides of the teeth. Reaumur's Hift. Inf. vol. 9. p. 357.

The head of the bee is faftened by a fhort, flexile, and flefhy neck to the breaft ; the hinder part of the head receives the end of the neck, and near the ir.fertion of this is placed the origin of the trunk ; this goes {trait forward from this place as far as the angle made by the teeth, and thence returns in a curved form to fall over the breaft. On the fides and upper part of the breaft are the origin of the four wings, and on its under part the four legs are inferted. There are alfo on the breaft the four principal ftigmata, which are fituated as in other flies. In the ordinary pofition of the parts, the pofterior end of the corselet is placed clofcly upon the firft ring of the body, fo that they feem joined together by their whole fur- faces. But the true ftate of thefe parts is, that they are only joined by a ligament; this ligament is placed on the lower part of the corcelet and body, and, being very fhort, is often not at all feen. The pofterior part of the corcelet alfo has a convexity, and the anterior part of the firft ring pf the body a cavity that receives it ; whence thefe parts, in their common ftate, appear joined together in a great extent, in which they really only touch. The body is compofed offix rings, whiih are covered with very ftrong fcales ; thefe are very neceflary to them, for they often fight, and were it not that there was fuch a defence againft one anothers flings, they would unque- stionably often perifh.

1 he body of the bee appears in feveral places fpotted with a reddifli colour ; all thefe parts are fo many hairy fpots, and owe their colour to the reddifh hue of the hair. The body, breaft, and head of the hue, arc alfo covered in many places with longer and more diftinguifhable hairs. In examining the creature in this view, it is proper to ufe a microfcope, for the 7 the naked eye (hews many hairs, this inftrument fhews vaft numbers more, and thofe in places where they could not have been fufpected to grow ; the very eyes arc not exempt from them, the large reticulated ones being as thick let with fhort and fine hairs, as almoft any other part of the body. Thefe hairs, when feen through the microfcope, do not ap- pear in form of fingle filaments, but they reprcfent fo many bufhes or beds of mofs, every filament, or as it appears to the naked eye, fingle hair, being thus feen to be branched and befet with {hort prominences refembling leaves of a plant. Reaumur's Hift, Inf. vol. 9. p.. 361.

Many have fufpected what are called the reticulated eyes of flies not to be real eyes, and thefe growing hairs upon them has feemed a convincing proof of their not being fo, fince it has been fuppofed that they could ferve to no other purpofe than to impede vifion. Mr. Hook and others have faid z great many things jn favour of the opinion of their being eye? ; but Mr. Reaumur has proved it beyond all doubt ; he choie to this purpofe the eyes of the bee for his experiment, as they were the moft hairy of thofe of any known infect, and there- fore the leaft qualified to act as eyes, according to the common opinion. The bee is known to fee very well ; and this author determined to try whether {he would do (o without the aflift- ance of thefe reticulated fubftances; he to this purpofe covered over the reticulated parts of the head of three or four bees of the common kind, and then inclofed them with twenty others in a wooden box. When they had been there fome time, he opened the lid of the box ; thofe which were not varniihed immediately flew out, and went directly to their hive; the others, whofe eyes were thus clofed up, continued in the box along time, and when difturbed, in order to fend them our, flew in various directions againft the fides of the box; and in fine, when in the air, feemed to know nothing of their way to the hive, but flew up into the air till out of fight. This experiment feems to have wholly determined the point, fince if the cieature be rendered blind by the covering the reti- culated fubftances on the head, U muft be allowed that thofe reticulated fubftances are the eyes. The hairs which grow on them do not take their origin from the pupils or lenfes, of which they are compofed, but from the fubihnce which fepa- rates or makes cells for them ; and though thefe hairs appear to fome to be greatly injurious to vifion, it may very poffibly be, that they ferve only as our eye-hfhes, to break the too. violent light to which the eyes are fometimes expofed. It is to be qbferved, that the hairs which grow upon the reticular eyes of the bee are not branched or foliated in the manner of thofe of the body, but are only fingle, fhort, and ftrait fila- ments, perfectly refembling the hairs of large animals. When Mr. Reaumur had thus proved the ufe of the reticulated eyta of the bee, he was determined to try the ufe alfo ot the three fmall and fhining eyes, which ftand on a triangle on the back part of the head ; to this purpofe he covered thefe eyes with thai fame varnilh with which he had before covered the reticulated ones, but leaving thefe bare: he did this with feveral bees, and afterwards placing them at a few yards diltance from the hive, he left them at liberty. Not one of them found the w.iy to the hive, or even feemed able to direct its flight to- wards it; but they all flew directly to the flowers that were 5 S nearcft