The Existence of Drones

The thoughtful reader will require no apology for the moralizing strain of many of my remarks, nor blame a clergyman if forgetting sometimes to speak as the mere naturalist. He endeavors to find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in bees, and God in everything. To return to the point from which I have digressed, a new attempt to account for the existence of so many drones. If a farmer persists in what is called breeding in and in without changing the blood, it is well known that a rapid degeneracy is the inevitable consequence. This law extends as far as we know to all animal life, and even man is not exempt from its influence.