STINGS. 



413 



STTNGS 



the bees to sting them on the affected parts. 

 The operator picks a bee off a comb by the 

 wings and presses it against the flesh until 

 the sting is driven into tlie skin. This has 

 been done on several occasions, and in each 

 case the parties who came forward for this 

 kind of treatment have said they experienced 

 relief. At the Jenkintown field-day meet- 

 ing, June 26, 1906, an old gentleman got up 

 on the platform, and, before something like 

 a thousand people, stings were applied to his 

 arm until something like a hundred were 

 imbedded deeply in the flesh. Did it hurt? 

 Oh, yes ! But the induced fever of the stings, 

 he said, seemed to l)ring a warmth and ton- 

 ing of the muscles that was after all a relief; 

 for, strangely enough, this large number of 

 stings did not seem to affect a rheumatic leg 

 or arm as it does a healthy member. 



It is a well-known fact that the homeo- 

 pathic school has for many years used bee- 

 sting poison in a remedy called "apis mel- 

 lifica." There are large wholesale drug- 

 houses that have made a business of buying 

 stings taken from live bees, being dropped, 

 as they are extracted, into small vials con- 

 taining sugar of milk. We have filled orders 

 irom our apiaries for bee stings to the extent 

 of 10,000 in one lot. From a frame of live 

 bees placed in a convenient position a bee is 

 picked up with a pair of broad-nosed tweez- 

 ers and immediately crushed. 'J'his act 

 forces out the sting, when it is immediately 

 grasped by another pair of fine pointed tweez- 

 ers. These are then given a sharp rap over 

 a wide-mouthed bottle containing sugar of 

 milk. In this way the stings are extracted 

 one by one until the whole number has been 

 inilled. But the operator, after having ex- 

 tracted four or five thousand, experiences a 

 sort of tingling and itching sensation in the 

 face, and finds he has to take a rest of some 

 days before he can renew the work. At 

 other times it happens that he can extract 

 only a few hundred a day when that itching 

 sensation will reappear. This is probably 

 due to the fact that he inhales some of the 

 fumes of the poison, which, entering the 

 lungs, is absorbed by the blood and carried 

 through the system. 



At other times a pound or so of bees is put 

 into a large wide-mouthed bottle or jar of 

 alcohol. But the poison of the stings ex- 

 tracted in this way must necessarily be mix- 

 ed with the other juices of the bees. 



Homeopathic physicians have "apismel- 

 liflca," thus made from bee stings, sujjplied 

 to them in tlie form of a liquid. It smells 

 not unlike bee-sting poison, and is often 



given internally to relieve the pain of rhei> 

 matism or swellings in general. But it is 

 evident that a hypodermic injection of the 

 bees, given directly on the affected part, 

 would be a hundred times more productive 

 of good results, assuming, of course, that the 

 poison does have a remedial effect. 



DOES A BEE DIE AFTER LOSING ITS STING V 



It has been stated that the loss of the sting 

 results in the death of the bee within a very 

 few hours ; but this can hardly be true. Col- 

 onies have at times become so enraged as to 

 sting every thing within reach, even plung- 

 ing their little javelins into fence-posts and 

 other inanimate objects, the result being 

 that nearly every bee of the hives in the fra- 

 cas would lose its sting, and yet these same 

 colonies live and prosper. One correspondent 

 in particular relates the following incident : 



Through carelessness he allowed a certain 

 one of his colonies to become so infuriated 

 as to sting everybody and every thing within 

 reach. He declared, upon a subsequent ex- 

 amination, that there was scarcely a bee in 

 that whole colony which did not show un- 

 mistakable evidence of having lost its sting 

 in the uproar just mentioned. Now, the sin- 

 gular fact was that these bees actually lived, 

 gathered honey, and prospered. 



That sorne bees die after losing their sting, 

 may be true; but that they invariably do so 

 is a claim now thoroughly discredited. 



SMOKE NOT ALWAYS A PREVENTIVE OF 

 BEE-STINGS. 



There are some colonies that, under gome 

 conditions, can not be conquered, even with 

 smoke. If the atmosphere is a little chilly, 

 or immediately after a rain, or if the supply 

 of nectar has suddenly stopped short off, a 

 few colonies may be very hard to handle. 

 While most bees under these conditions will 

 yield to smoke, it seems to infuriate other.--. 

 The only thing to do is to let them alone for 

 the time being; then the next day or two, 

 when the weather is favorable, blow a little 

 smoke in at the entrance, raise the cover 

 very gently, blow in a few whiffs more, 

 when, presto! the fiends of the day before 

 are as gentle as kittens. 



MECHANICAL CONSTRUCTION AND OPEKA- 

 TION OF THE STING. 



After a bee has stung you, and torn it- 

 self away from the sting, you will no- 

 tice, if you look closely, a bundle of muscles 

 near by and partly enveloping the poison- 

 bag. Well, the curious part of it is that for 

 some considerable time after the sting has 

 been detached from the body of the bee, 



