It is evident that the propolis cannot be obtained from the same source as the wax. The latter is secreted by the bees under little plates or flaps upon the abdomen, while the propolis is purely a vegetable exudation. It is obtained from many trees, the principal being the horse chestnut. All who have handled the buds of this tree are aware that they are covered with a viscous and very adhesive matter, which serves as a varnish or protection to the bud before the leaves are strong enough to break out. This is the material which the bees gather for their propolis, and at certain times of the year the chestnuts may be seen swarming with bees, all busily engaged in scraping off the varnish.
TOOLS.
CHAPTER I.
THE DIGGING-STICK.—SPADE.—SHEARS AND SCISSORS.—CHISEL AND ADZE.—THE PLANE AND SPOKESHAVE.
The Use of Tools a Distinction between Man and Beast.—All Men, however savage, use Tools, but none of the lower Animals can do so until taught by Man.—Tools needed to break up the Ground.—The Digging-stick of savage Life: its Use and its Efficacy in practised Hands.—Digging-sticks in Nature.—The Heart-urchin, and its Mode of digging in the Sand.—The Spade: its Shapes and Uses.—Natural Spades.—Fore-foot of the Mole and Mole-cricket.—The Aard-vark, the Ant-eater, and the Mattock.—Shears and Scissors a Sign of Civilisation, never being employed by Savages.—Mechanical Principle of Scissors, the Inclined Plane, the Lever, and the Cutting Edge.—Chinese Shears and the Pruning Scissors.—Use of the Inclined Plane.—The Diagonal Knife of the Guillotine.—The Shears in Iron-works.—The “Drawing Cut” of Swordsmen.—Jaws of the Turtle and Tortoise.—The Snapping Turtle and the Chicken Tortoise.—The Locust, the Cockchafer Grub, the Great Green Grasshopper, and the Wart-biter.—The Leaf-cutter Bees and their Nests.—The Chisel and Adze.—Structure of Rodent Tooth and Chisel.—Use of the hard Plate of Enamel or Steel.—Combination of hard and soft Materials.—Teeth of Hippopotamus and Hyrax.—Principle of the Adze.—Self-sharpening and Self-renewing Tools.—The Plane and Spokeshave.—Principle on which they are made.—The Spokeshave and its Uses.—The “Guard” Razor.—The Hoop-shaver Bee and its Nest.—Its natural Plane, and the Use which is made of it.
AMONG the many points of distinction between man and the lower animals, we may consider the use of tools as one of the principal lines of demarcation. Man stands absolutely alone in this respect. There is no race of savages, however degraded they may be, that does not employ tools of some kind, and there is no beast, however intelligent, that ever used a tool except when instructed by man.
As to the stories that are told of the larger apes using sticks and stones by way of weapons, they are absolutely without foundation, no animal employing any tool or weapon save those given to them by Nature. It is true that a monkey may sometimes be seen to take a stone for the purpose of cracking nuts which are too strong for its teeth, and to perform that task with great deftness; but such animals have always been taught by man, and had they remained in their own country, not one of them would have used a stone, were the nuts ever so hard.
The Spade.
We will begin our notice of tools by taking that which must have been the first tool invented by man. One of the principal duties assigned to man is the culture of the earth, and this he cannot do without tools, increasing their number and improving their structure in proportion to his own development in agriculture.
Before seed can be sown, it is necessary that the earth should be broken up, and, owing to the structure of the human frame, this task cannot be fulfilled by man without a tool which will enable him to rival many of the lower animals, i.e. make use of those digging appliances which have been furnished by Nature.
It is evident that the first earth-breaking tool must have been a pointed stick, and we find that in Southern Africa, in parts of Asia, and in Australia the Digging-stick is still in use for the purpose of breaking up the ground. The Australians are wonderful adepts in the use of the Digging-stick, which is one of the simplest of instruments, being merely a stick some two feet in length, pointed at one end, and the point hardened in the fire.