Letter and/or further information available at http://linnean-online.org/61692/.
Also published in The Correspondence of Sir James Edward Smith, The Linnean Society's Archive Catalogue.
Please cite as “LINNEAN2644,” in Ɛpsilon: The Linnean Society of London Collection accessed on 1 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/linnean-society/letters/LINNEAN2644
Has obtained Peter Huber's paper on "the natural history of the humble-bees" for the Linnean Society and relates some of its principal discoveries; Huber is the son of William Huber of Geneva who published an "ingenious" work on hive bees five years ago including discovery that the queen bee is impregnated out of the hive whilst on the wing and that it is fatal to the males. Huber intends to publish further observations on bees in a second volume, including on the small pouches between the segments on the undersides of the abdomen, in which wax is inserted, and has also observed that the "yellow matter" found on the legs of bees is "bee bread", as discovered by John Hunter [(1728-1793), surgeon and anatomist] before him, but Huber found that this was known to an "old English author on bees which was translated early in [the eighteenth] century into German".
Grateful for Smith's assistance in helping him through France and during his "exile" intends to work on framing much better characters for the division of 'Phalaena' [moths]. Unable to give an account of [Edmund] Davall. Comments that "our revolution" has passed off without bloodshed [French invasion of Switzerland], however at the first moment of its revolt every Englishman except himself left Lausanne as it was expected that the [French] would attack, forcing the cantons to gradually fall off [from the Swiss Confederation] and leave Bern at the mercy of the French. Asks whether [William] Kirby has published on bees as was being reported before leaving England.
The Linnean Society of London[View Ɛpsilon collection]
Also published in The Correspondence of Sir James Edward Smith, The Linnean Society's Archive Catalogue.