AMERICAN HONEY PLANTS 205 



toxicated, but when they had eaten much they were like mad men. 

 Strabo and Pliny spoke of poisonous honey, the latter writer, an 

 early naturalist noted for his accurate observations, records poison- 

 ous honey, which he called "aegolethron" (goat's death), which bees 

 collected at Heraclea. He gives a description of the honey, which is 

 said to have had a peculiar smell and produced sneezing. It is gen- 

 erally supposed that this honey came from a species of Rhododen- 

 dron, the R. pontica. This and allied species are the chief source of 

 poisonous honey in Asia and Asia Minor, but it may be said in this 

 connection that honey collected from the heather in Scotland is not 

 poisonous. 



"Barton, an early American botanist, reported poisonous honey 

 in New Jersey as early as 1794. Subsequently Coleman reported a 

 large number of cases in 1852, and Gammer, in Gleanings in Bee Cul- 

 ture, and several writers in the American Bee Journal, reported 

 poisonous honey. Other writers, like Chestnut and Crawford, have 

 reported on the occurrence of poisonous honey in the United States, 

 and Kebler reports no less than eight cases for New Jersey in 1896, and 

 believes that it is much more common than the records seem to indi- 

 cate. Kebler was fortunate enough to investigate some of the poison- 

 ous honey following a case of poisoning in New Jersey. He exam- 

 ined a part of the comb of the dark honey which had a light brown 

 color and a nauseating odor, pungent taste, caused a burning sensa- 

 tion in the back of the mouth similar to that of aconite. Persons who 

 partook of a small amount of this honey began to cough immediately. 

 He also made a chemical analysis of the non-suspicious honey, di- 

 gesting with alcohol, then evaporated, the residue was again treated 

 to alcohol and evaporated and administered to two cats. One received 

 a small dose and the other a large one. The results from the cats 

 were so interesting that I quote from Professor Kebler: 



" 'The small dose produced partial exhaustion, relaxation of the 

 voluntary muscles and general depression. The large dose in a short 

 time produced restlessness, vomiting, purging, prostration and almost 

 complete loss of the voluntary muscles, showing that the honey con- 

 tained a prompt and potent poison. The animal could scarcely be in- 

 duced to move, and when motion was attempted, first the fore-limbs 

 would fail, and then the back-limbs would give way. First one por- 

 tion of the body would sway in one direction, then the other portion in 

 another , reminding one of a highly intoxicated person. Had the entire 

 dose been retained, death undoubtedly would have followed. As it was, 

 the cat had regained her normal condition only at the end of twenty- 

 four hours.' " 



Along with this we may append the symptoms as reported by the phy- 

 sician who attended the persons who were poisoned : 



"Mr. and Mrs. Chambers took but a small quantity, yet each no- 

 ticed a peculiar, pungent, burning taste in the comb as soon as it had 

 passed their lips. In fifteen or twenty minutes afterwards Mrs. C 

 was taken with nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting, soon followed by 

 loss of consciousness, coldness of extremities, feebly acting heart, and 

 complete collapse. While ministering to her, Mr. Chambers, who had 

 also experienced the initiatory symptoms of pain and nausea, suddenly 

 exclaimed, T cannot see,' and soon sank in a state of syncope to th3 

 floor. In each case the symptoms were similar. Retching, vomiting, 

 purging, acute gastric and abdominal pain, and continued cramps for 

 some hours, with surface coldness, and deadly pallor, and the general 

 symptoms of collapse. 



"Kebler was, however, unable to definitely locate the andromedo- 

 toxin found by Plugge. This author recjided it for a large number of 



