the study of the habits of the bee by the blind Huber, who was born in Geneva in 1750. His observations made with his own brain, but with the eyes of his wife, niece and servant, form a classic in bee-literature. In 1811 there were born, a continent apart, two great bee-keepers: Langstroth in Philadelphia, and Dzierzon in Silesia. Both were clergymen, but were also true scientists, and both invented means by which the combs could be moved and examined. Langstroth carried his invention farther, and in 1852 devised the movable frame which revolutionised bee-keeping.
Up to this time the business of the bee-man was largely guess-work. He did not know anything about the condition of his bees in the hive, for he had no way of penetrating that dark chamber. The ways of reaping the honey-harvest were devious; at best the combs were torn from the hives with little regard for the rights and lives of the bees. Finally, there was devised the truly infernal plan of killing the bees with the fumes of burning brimstone, before taking their treasure; this method undoubtedly originating in the turgid theology of the times.
However, about the time of Langstroth, someone, or perhaps many, had discovered that bees stored their honey in the upper part of the hive; and the old box-hive had a few auger-holes in the top, over which was inverted a box, which the bees usually filled, and thus saved themselves from the brimstone pit. We remember well the delight in our family when we used, for the first time, such boxes with glass
