Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/234

230 is pierced closely with holes, each the 16th or 20th of an inch in diameter. Above the bottom, inside, and at the distance of an inch from it, stands upon four feet, a stage. A, ..... of the same shape and size, made of wire cloth, of ¼ inch mesh. Under the bottom, is fixed a piece of fine muslin, B, the edges of which are brought out at the joining of the two vessels. In using this apparatus, the combs being sliced horizontally through the cells, are laid with the cut side undermost upon the wire cloth stage, which retains all the bulky part of the wax, and prevents it from clogging the holes below; the honey drops upon the bottom, and runs through the small holes which prevent the lesser particles of wax from getting through, while the muslin below causes it to flow in almost perfect purity into the under vessel, from whence it issues through the spigot into the store-jars. A cover put on the top vessel, after the sliced comb has been deposited, completes the exclusion of the external air, with which the honey never comes in contact till it runs from the spigot. The wax is next to be attended to, and there cannot be, perhaps, a simpler and more effectual direction for its manipulation than that which is given by the Abbé della Rocca. The wax is put into a woollen bag, firmly tied at the mouth; the bag is plunged into a pan of boiling water; the pure material oozes through the cloth, and swims on the surface; it is carefully skimmed off, as long as any continues to rise, and poured into a shallow earthen bowl, which is previously wetted to prevent the wax from adhering to