doubtful {333} whether such physical or mechanical pressure, more or less intermittently exercised, could produce the all but perfectly smooth, plane surfaces and the all but perfectly definite and constant angles which characterise the cell, whether it be constructed of wax or papery pulp. It seems more likely that we have to do with a true surface-tension effect; in other words, that the walls assume their configuration when in a semi-fluid state, while the papery pulp is still liquid, or while the wax is warm under the high temperature of the crowded hive33. Under these circumstances, the direct efforts of the wasp or bee may be supposed to be limited to the making of a tubular cell, as thin as the nature of the material permits, and packing these little cells as close as possible together. It is then easily conceivable that the symmetrical tensions of the adjacent films (though somewhat retarded by viscosity) should suffice to bring the whole system into equiôÙlibôÙrium, that is to say into the precise configuration which the comb actually presents. In short, the Maraldi pyramids which terminate the beeãs cell are precisely identical with the facets of a rhombic dodecahedron, such as we have assumed to constitute (and which doubtless under certain conditions do constitute) the surfaces of contact in the interior of a mass of soap-bubbles or of uniform parenchymatous cells; and there is every reason to believe that the physical explanation is identical, and not merely mathôÙeôÙmatôÙiôÙcally analogous.
The remarkable passage in which Buffon discusses the beeãs cell and the hexagonal configuration in general is of such historical importance, and tallies so closely with the whole trend of our enquiry, that I will quote it in full: ãDirai-je encore un mot; ces cellules des abeilles, tant vantûˋes, tant admirûˋes, me fournissent une preuve de plus contre lãenthousiasme et lãadmiration; cette figure, toute gûˋomûˋtrique et toute rûˋguliû´re quãelle nous paraûÛt, et quãelle est en effet dans la spûˋculation, nãest ici quãun rûˋsultat mûˋcanique et assez imparfait qui se trouve souvent dans la nature, {334} et que lãon remarque mûˆme dans les productions les plus brutes; les cristaux et plusieurs