THE HUMBUG

Nothing can be more disheartening than the results of scientific endeavor when applied to popular beliefs. Not that people accept scientific conclusions for they do not--but no one feels exactly comfortable when proving a point by a popular saying which he knows to be false. "Sunset" is still the accepted term for "earthrise", and ostriches continue to bury their heads in the sand everywhere but in real life in spite of all that scientists say to the contrary, but these are exceptions. Even the bee has now been unmasked as a sluggard, not at all living up to his nursery reputation for ceaseless industry.

By means of electric contacts and restricted passages, Government scientists have discovered that the busy bee really spends most of his time in the hive, instead of performing his function of hymeneal communicant from flower to flower as nature intended. Furthermore, by counting the number of bees and calculating how many trips each one takes during a life-time, the destroyers of popular mythology conclude that each bee does an insignificant amount of work, compared to the noise he makes.

There is always the comfort, however, whenever scientists brilliantly expose a popular superstition, that no one will believe them. The truth about bees, while it may be used by bee-keepers, will be rejected by makers of nursery rhymes, public moralizers, and by anyone else who wishes to point triumphantly to nature as setting an example to man.