766 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15. 



correspondence witli^ doiilers in all p:irts of the 

 world, and tbe expenditure of money which cost 

 much self-denial to save. As a result of liis wide 

 reading-, Mr. Malin was a well-informed man; and, 

 although he did not seek conversation, being- rather 

 reserved ia his manner, yet he showed by his re- 

 marks that he had good judgment, and possessed a 

 mind conversant with a multitude of subjects in 

 art, literature, and popular sciences 



In his intercourse with Managers and Physicians 

 he was always most courteous, cheerful, and cordial 

 in his manner. His long association with the 

 physicians of the institution was unmsirred by any 

 unpleasantness; in fact, in consequence of his uni- 

 form amiability of demeanor many of the residents 

 and members of the medical statf became his life- 

 long, cherished friends. Mr. Maiin, soon after his 

 transfer (in 1819) to the Pine Street Hospital, married 

 Anna M. Langstroth, sister of L. L. Langstroth, who 

 died in less than a year afterward, and without 

 offspring; he did not marry a second time. 



Althoug-h Mr. Malin's tastes did not inclioe to- 

 ward medical studies, he showed great iaterest in 

 the treatment of the insane. As the result of his 

 observations, he presented to the Board of Man- 

 agers, in 1838, an article on the necessity of provid- 

 ing a separate asylum for the insane; and, again, 

 in 1834, a paper on employment of the insane. Mr. 

 Malin's views possessed so much originality and 

 force as to lead the State Committee on Lunacy to 

 publish these papers in its annual report for the 

 year 1884. Copious extracts have also been made 

 from these papers on another page of this history. 



Mr. Malin was buried August 5, 1887, in the Wood- 

 lands Cemetery, Philadelphia; and his collection of 

 historical and Boliemian books have a permanent 

 resting-place in the library of the Moravian Breth- 

 ren's Church, at Bethlehem. His portrait is in the 

 hall of the Hospital, just at the entrance of the 

 office where he lived for so many years. 



[Perhaps our readers w^onder what the life of 

 such a man. however good and noble, has to do 

 with bee-keeping. As prepared by father 

 Langstroth it seenas to be a sort of introduction 

 to a very important old letter on a subject 

 touching one phase of bee-keeping upon which 

 comparatively little is known. The letter was 

 written to Mr. L. long ago, as vou will see; and 

 as it has never seen the printed page before, I 

 am sure it will be read with interest now. But 

 before I give you Malin's letter I will here give 

 an extract from Mr. Langstroth's letter con- 

 cerning it.— Ed.] 



Dear Emesf:— Sincel sent you Mr. Malin's letter I 

 And that there is a very full discussion of the ques- 

 tion whether the honey-bee was indigenous to this 

 contiaent, by Prof . A. Gerstaker, of Berlin, who 

 sent it to Wm. Wagner. This article was translated 

 by Samuel Wagner from the German, and published 

 in Vol. II. of tlie American Bee Journal for July, 

 1866. Mr. Malin's letter to me was written in the 

 fall of 1864, and antedates Gerstaker's es«ay; still I 

 think that you will do well to publish Malin's 

 letter; but I thought it oidy right to call your at- 

 tention to Gerstaker's essay. 



^ L. L. Langstroth. 



Dayton, O., Aug. 1. 



WAS THE HONEY BEE INDIGENOUS OR NOT IN THIS 



COUNTRY? A CAREFUIj REVIEW OP ALL 



THE EVIDENCE. 



_ ^ Philadelphia, Sept. 24, 1864. 



Bcv.L. L. Lan(jstr',ih:—My Dear Brother:— I have 

 consulted the paper of Dr. Barton, to which you re- 



ferred me, and find that his conclusion, from all the 

 evidtnce attninable in his day (1793), was precisely 

 that to which my researches had conducted me; 

 viz., that Ihe honej--bee was not native, but was in- 

 troduced ftom Europe. Had I known of Barton's 

 essay it might have saved me some trouble, as he 

 refers to, and quotes, sundry authors from"Pur- 

 chas his Pilgrim," down to Bartram, which 1 had 

 some trouble in hunting up. He, however, adds 

 what I think a material fact as regards our inquiry; 

 and that is, that none of the Indi.-tns occupying- 

 these regions had any original names in their lan- 

 guages for the bee or its products; and Elliot, when 

 translating the Bible, was, in consequence, obliged 

 to use the English names with Indian terminations. 

 Subsequently, when the Delawares became ac- 

 quainted with the honey-bee they applied to it 

 their name for the wasp, and called honey by a 

 name which signified the "sweet or sugar of the 

 wasp;" and wax by one which meant the "fat, 

 grease, or tHllow " of the wasp. 



I find that Barton's paper was prompted by one 

 written by the Rev. Dr. Belknap, who contended 

 that the honey-bee was native on this continent, in 

 its southern portions, at least in Mexico and Cuba. 

 I have read Belknap's paper; and have consulted 

 the authorities he quotes, and am quite satisfied 

 that he was wrong-. Even he, however, admits that 

 our insect was not found north of Florida, or the 

 southern portion of Georgia. He also says, "There 

 is a tradition in New England," the authenticity of 

 which he was unable to trace, "that the person who 

 first brought a hive of bees into the country was re- 

 WMrded with a grant of land." 



Further, Mr. John Josselyn (whose book I have 

 also consulted), who was in New England in 1638, 

 and again in 16i!3. in some account of his voyages 

 published in London in 1673 thus speaks of the hon- 

 ey-bee: "The honey-bees are carried over by the 

 English. ;ind thrive there exceedingly." 



The Rev. Mr. Heckewelder assured Prof. Barton 

 that, although he had seen the true honey-bees wild 

 in various parts of the United States at some dis- 

 tance from settlements, he was always assured by 

 the Indians that these insects were not known in 

 these countries before the whites began to settle 

 them. Bnrion adds that it is very unlikely that 

 these Indians could be mistaken on the subject, as 

 they are by no means incurious observers, and are 

 as fond of honey as the bears are. 



Mr. Wm. Bartram, who traveled in West Florida 

 in ]77.'>. informed Barton that he was shown as a 

 curiosity a bee-hive, tbe Qnly one in that extensive 

 country, introduced therefrom England ^^ hen the 

 English took pos.session of Pensacola in 1763. He had 

 seen the honey-bee wild in East Florida, but was 

 satisfied from his inquiries that it is not a native of 

 the country. 



Barton says. "The honey-liee was not found by 

 the first settlers in Kentucky: but about the year 

 1780 a hive was brought by a Colonel Herrod to the 

 Rapids of the Ohio, since which time these insects 

 have incrensed prodigiously." Was this not the 

 probnble origin of those seen by j'our octogenarian 

 friend ? * 



The only authority quoted by Dr. Belknap for the 

 probable existence of the bee in any part of the 

 ITnited States is the finding of a single pot of honey 

 by tbe expedition of DeSoto at a place called Chiaha, 

 on an island sui-rounded by shallow water, suppos- 

 ed to be on the upper part of the Mobile River, in 

 Southern Georgia, I have referred to the narrative, 

 as translated in Purchas. and find that this was the 

 only honey seen or heard of by the expedition. 



*This refers to infoimalion given me by an octo- 

 genarian clerk of the courts, residing-, in 18.57, in 

 Hai-dinsbui-g. Ky. He lecoUected seeing honey- 

 bees at so early a date in Kentucky that he had al- 

 ways taken it for granted that they were natives 

 there. 



] had read somewhere that, at the time tlie hon- 

 ey-bees was first introduced in America, the Nor- 

 weniansweie not tro\ibled by the bee-moth (Ti/icrt 

 meUniirUa). As the bees in New England were not 

 infested by this moth until 180.5, it wouldseem quite 

 possible that the first bees imported into New Eng- 

 land might have come from some country where 

 this nest was not known, and not from any part of 

 the English Isles where it had been so long known. 

 (See Dr. Kirtlands account of its first appearance 

 near Boston. Mass., in my work, "The Hive and 

 Honey-bee," 3d edition, papre 240. L. L. L. 



