18'.l3 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



63 



teaches most plainly that it was God's intention 

 that we should get our food from both the ani- 

 mal and vegetable kingdom. Let any one of 

 good sense and fairness examine the Bible with 

 this thought in view. 



Si- Again, after having discovered what articles 

 of food, if properly chewed, could be eaten 

 without starting the beer-plant, I began to 

 make some experiments. If you stir the mud 

 in the bottom of a stagnant pool, a peculiar gas 

 will arise. By inverting a fruit-jar, filled with 

 water, right over the gas, where it is coming 

 up, you can easily get the jar full and examine 

 it. It is inflammable, and, if burned in the 

 night time, it makes a very pretty experiment. 

 Set your jar right side up; and while you hold 

 a lighted match over its mouth, as soon as it is 

 uncovered make the gas come out, and strike 

 the flame by Klling the jar with water from a 

 pitclier. This gas is carburetted hydrogen, and 

 is similar to common illuminating gas. There 

 is another gas, a little different, but much more 

 poisonous, called s»7p/iuretted hydrogen. Phis 

 comes from decaying vegetable and animal 

 substances. It has so much the smell of rotten 

 eggs that it is usually recognized by its odor. 

 This latter gas is of ten produced inconsiderable 

 quantities in the human body when the diges- 

 tion is disordered. It is the product of fermen- 

 tation. It is usually the gas that gives us 

 distress and th^ colicky pains. I believe it is 

 generally in consequence of overloading the 

 stomach and bowels. The disagreeable smell 

 that usually attends it will indicate the source 

 whence it comes. Pumpkin pie has always 

 been a favorite dish with me. In fact, it is a 

 sort of traditional dish with our friends in the 

 Eastern States. I presume it is healthful 

 enough for most people ; but I have noticed 

 that it disturbs my digestion more than almost 

 any thing else. I feel sure that I am not mis- 

 taken, because, when the gas comes up into my 

 moutli, the odor of rotten pumpkins is most 

 plainly and sometimes painfully apparent. I 

 told you that I was going to talk plainly, so you 

 must bear with me a little. 



Another " Down East'" article of diet is baked 

 beans. I think this upsets me perhap-i even 

 worse than the pumpkin pie. Turnips, squasli- 

 es, and quite a variety of garden vegetables, 

 seem to be, at least for the present, forbidden to 

 me— that is, if I want to be well and strong. I 

 have consulted physicians in regard to the 

 matter. They simply tell me that I had l^etter 

 avoid articles of diet that I find do not agi'ee 

 with me, or suggest that [ miglit try soda, am- 

 monia, pepsin, etc.: but I believe that all agree 

 that it is just as well, or better, to be careful of 

 •one's diet. Another thing, I can not with safety 

 eat any thing between meals — not even a little 

 fruit. I mean, of course, when I am confined to 

 the office, as I am for the greater part of the time 

 now in mid-winter. When I was taking those 

 vigorous rides I ate any thing that other people 

 ■did, and at any time of day when I felt like it. 

 Well, the testimony I have just given is cer- 

 tainly not much in favor of a vegetable diet, 

 •especially for invalids and dyspetics. No kind 

 of animal food ever distresses me as do the veg- 

 etables 1 have mentioned 



nionce heard a very wise man say tnat, when 

 he wanted light in regard to God's commands 

 or wishes on any subject, we should consult 

 Jirxt the word of God thoroughly. If that does 

 not give us light, we may rest assured that help 

 will come by making the matter a subject of 

 prayer. Now, then, what does the Bible' say in 

 regard to lohdt we should eat? In the fore part 

 of the Old Testament there is considerable said 

 about keeping flocks and using animal food. 

 Pretty soon milk begins to assume a very prom- 

 anent place; and by and by there are many 



passages referring to the use of honey. When 

 God made promises to the faithful ones, of a 

 land of their own, where they could be free 

 from oppression, milk and honey are mentioned 

 together; and one can hardly resist the convic- 

 tion, when he reads there of a land floiving with 

 milk and honey, that the expression was used 

 as a sort of summing-up of the best things that 

 could be desired. While I was praying over the 

 matter, it came to me all at once with consider- 

 able force, that the next thing to go with milk, 

 right from the cow, was honey. I told you be- 

 fore, that new milk is pure concentrated food 

 from God's own hand. Let us look at honey. 

 The nectar is secreted by the tlowers just as the 

 maple sap is by the trees : but instead of wait- 

 ing for a pailful, or even half a pailful, tiie bees 

 gather the nectar from some plants as often as 

 every few minutes. Note what I have said in 

 regard to the figwort. Then the bees seem to 

 be God's trained workmen. They gather the 

 nectar and boil it down, give it one step in the 

 way of digestion, perhaps (as our good friend 

 Prof. Cook insists); then they seal it up with 

 more care and nicety and cleanliness than any 

 good housewife or any canning-factory ever put 

 up choice articles of food since the world began. 

 Milk soon spoils; but bees have been doing a 

 line of work in preserving one of the purest 

 products of the plant, since the world began. 

 And they do it with a skill that is absolutely 

 perfect. I selected some nice comb honey, and 

 ate it with my gems and new milk. No sort of 

 disturbance resulted at all. Although sugar, 

 and especially yellow sugar, and cheap syrups, 

 are about the worst thing a dyspeptic can eat, I 

 discovered that I could eat good honey with my 

 new milk, for supper, breakfast, or dinner, and 

 in almost any quantity, with perfect impunity. 

 The result to me was astonishing; and this 

 corroborates what good father Langstroth has 

 told us about taking lots of milk with honey 

 whenever we eat it. The Bible has coupled them 

 together, and they seem to belong together. If 

 you eat sugar or candies, and then drink milk, 

 the milk has a sort of sour taste in the mouth 

 afterward: but after eating honey, most people 

 can take milk with a peculiar relish. No matter 

 how much honey you eat, it does not make the 

 milk lose its richness nor sweetness. In fact. 

 it is just the other way * Now, I have many 

 times decided that honey was not good for me. 

 as you may remember: and it would not be 

 good now if I ate largely of other things with 

 it. perhaps only half chewing any of them, and 

 then washing it down with strong coffee and 

 milk. No doubt there is a long list of pure 

 foods which will be as safe as milk and honey- 

 strawberries and other fresh fruits, for instance. 

 Out of deference to Dr. Salisbury. I must not 

 omit to say that home-made beef tea, and the 

 juices of good meat, seem to answer almost or 

 quite as well as new milk: but I think it is bet- 

 ter for me to have my solid meat for breakfast or 

 dinner, or just before I take vigorous exercise, 

 making a supper of gems, honey, and new milk, 



*Sug-nr is not honey, and lioney is not sug-ar. The 

 test I have given above would uf itself decide which 

 was a syrup made of granulated sugar and which 

 was honey. Of course, refined sugar is very much 

 better for weak stomachs than clieap sugar orclieap 

 molasses; and on this account they use the best 

 retliied loaf sugar for feeding babies that cm n not 

 have tile inotlier's milk; but I am much inclined to 

 believe that real nice well-ripened honey would be 

 much better for baliies than the liest refined loaf 

 sugar In the world. Before adding honey to my 

 gems iuid new milk I used to get faint before the 

 next meal. After the honey was added, however, 

 my strength held out full and strong. Vou see, I 

 have got on to what our agricultural writers call a 

 "well-balanced ration," and one tliat does not feed 

 fermentation in the least. 



