in the middle or in any other part, indifferently. The second to be
split may adjoin the first or it may be removed from it by a number
of spaces, either above or below. Sometimes several hatchings occur
on the same day, within the same hour, some farther back in the row
of cells, some farther forward; and this without any apparent reason
for the simultaneity. In short, the hatchings follow upon one
another, I will not say haphazard--for each of them has its appointed
place in time, determined by impenetrable causes--but at any rate
contrary to our calculations, based on this or the other
consideration.

Had we not been deceived by our too shallow logic, we might have
foreseen this result. The eggs are laid in their respective cells at
intervals of a few days, of a few hours. How can this slight
difference in age affect the total evolution, which lasts a year?
Mathematical accuracy has nothing to do with the case. Each germ,
each grub has its individual energy, determined we know not how and
varying in each germ or grub. This excess of vitality belongs to the
egg before it leaves the ovary. Might it not, at the moment of
hatching, be the cause why this or that larva takes precedence of its
elders or its juniors, chronology being altogether a secondary
consideration? When the hen sits upon her eggs, is the oldest always
the first to hatch? In the same way, the oldest larva, lodged in the
bottom storey, need not necessarily reach the perfect state first.

A second argument, had we reflected more deeply on the matter, would
have shaken our faith in any strict mathematical sequence. The same
brood forming the string of cocoons in a bramble-stem contains both
males and females; and the two sexes are divided in the series
indiscriminately. Now it is the rule among the Bees for the males to