An Enquiry into the Nature, Order and Government of Bees. Those instructive and useful insects. With a new, easy and effectual method to preserve them, not only in Colonies, but common Hives.

pp.illus frontis., x, 158 with one further engraved plate. 8vo. Hardback. Contents near fine condition. Two neat, early ownership inscriptions (one dated 1787) and bookplate of David Smith (long-term IBRA Secretary and author) loosely inserted. The plates in this edition are especially charming. Bound in handsome original full-calf leather (tree-calf style), showing some wear along spine and to fore-edges, o/w. vg. and still very firm internally. Marbled end-papers. (Harding 97). Thorley’s secret was the puffball narcotic, which he used when uniting colonies; its use was mentioned in 1597 by John Gerard and had long been practised in the Netherlands. Of English writers, Thorley was the first to mention having found wax scales in the pockets of worker bees.