1885 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



.521 



A. B. J. conlainin.i? his very full report of 

 the proceeding's. 1 liud my eyes and ears 

 open all the time I was able to' be with you, 

 and I hope the accimiulated wisdom stored 

 lip during those few hours will be cropping 

 out here and tliere on the pages of Glkan- 



INGS. 



THE HONEY-POISONING CASE. 



SOMETHING DIIJECTLY FKOM THE PAUTIES COX- 

 CEISNEU. 



fRIEND ROOT:— As I suppose I am the only 

 subscriber you have near Dranchvillo, I re- 

 solved myself into a " committee of one," and 

 resolved to sift the firanchville honey case. I 

 heard of it at the time, and believe, and so 

 does every one here, that the honey they ate killed 

 those peoi)le. That it wasg-elsemium, I am inclined 

 to doubt; for, if this were the case, why have not 

 others been poisoned by it before? Yellow jessa- 

 mine blooms in very great profusion hero. In our 

 swamps it covers the g-round and many of the tall- 

 est trees, and the bees work on it as lonj,"- as it lasts. 

 The honey that my bees made when working on it 

 was white, clear, and as beautiful as any I ever saw, 

 and it tasted better than any other made this year. 

 Onr April, May, and June honey is generally dark, 

 but of good flavor. In the fall, that gathered is 

 generally very bitter, and can not be used at all. 

 Next spring I will take some of this jessamine hon- 

 ey and send it to you; and if you desire, you can 

 have it analyzed. I can send you some bitter hon- 

 ey in the fall, also, if you wish. 



The yellow jessamine blooms here in great profu- 

 sion in the earlier spring, say January and Februa- 

 ry, and sometimes as early as Pcccmber. Last 

 spring was very backward, and it bloomed in Febru- 

 ary and March. My bees worked on it in a pcifect 

 rush, and made, I suppose, considerable honey from 

 it, as they brought it in, and I could find very few 

 other flowers. 1 took some comb honey in April 

 that was not all scaled, and ate it, as did my fatnil.\- 

 also, with no bad results. Others about me keep 

 bees, and have done so for years, and this is the first 

 c>ise of the kind that 1 liavc ever heai-<l of here. 

 Vou know more of tho nature of honey than I do. 

 Now, is it possible that this jessamine honey is poi- 

 sonous until purilled by the bees, and sealed? 



Ji;HL' fi. I'()STEI-I>. 



Orangeburg, S. C. July 7, 1H85. 



Many thanks, friend P., for your kind ser- 

 vices in this matter ; and as I "said before, if 

 you are out of pocket in hmiting ui.) the case 

 for us, send in your bill, and we will pay it. 



The following is an accotint of the matter, 

 from Mr. and j\Irs. J)ukes, paii'iits of oiu' of 

 the victims : 



We certify that weobfaincd .some honey, a portion 

 taken at the robbing of four gums; we also had 

 some other honey, obtained from a difrerenl source. 

 Two separate vessels contained the different honey. 

 The family had been eating of the last-mentioned 

 honey for several days, and no bad effect resulted. 

 On tho evening of the 25th of May our son Abram, 

 about eleven years of age, ate of the first-mention- 

 ed honey, or that which came from the four gums, 

 and had not yet been used l)y the family. It is sup- 

 posed that in one houi-, or thereabout, the honey 

 began to affect him, producing giddiness, and he 

 said he could not walk Wjthouf; staggering, and said 



he was blind. He complained only of general lassi- 

 tude and slight nausea, in addition to the first symp- 

 toms, and within the space of two hours a convul- 

 sion came on, and he breathed his last. A couple of 

 days after this, some of the honey of wliich Abram 

 had eaten was given to a negro woman, who gave it 

 to some children for supper. In the space of one 

 hour two of these children were dead. They com- 

 plained of this same blindness and dizziness that 

 Abram did, and of nausea, and some pain in the 

 stomach. Two of the negroes vomited, and recov- 

 ered. Mrs. Dukes ate some of this liouey while get- 

 ting it for tho negro woman, and was affected in the 

 manner described above. The report as contained 

 in the Banner of June i is correct and true in every 

 particular. One of the family of whom the honey 

 was obtained was affected in a similar manner, but 

 vomited, and was relieved without any further evil 

 effects. Jacob T. Dukes. 



M.\GGiE V. Dukes. 

 Branchville, S. C, July L'J, 18&). 



Many thanks are due you also, my good 

 friends, for yoiu- kind services in the matter. 

 May God be with ytnt in your atlliction. 

 The report JiUuded to in the Banner contains 

 notiiing fiuther than we have already given, 

 except the following clause: 



We have often heard it affirmed that in eating 

 honey uns<>ali'il. or that robbed too early in the sea- 

 son, then was danger of poison. Ill the low coun- 

 try a gi'i'sitcr portion (if tlif iKjncy is lomid to con- 

 tain ixiison, owing, pei'liups, to tlic al>undance and 

 variety (if wild flowers in that vicinity. We have 

 often kiiDwii persons to be made slightly sick from 

 eating new honey, but these cases of deaths above 

 are the first ever known in this section. 



I think tlic writer is coirect in his opinion 

 as above, that the honey that would bg disa- 

 greeable or deleterious, if eaten as soon as 

 gathered, is many times made jtleasant as 

 well as hariuless by being allowed to ripen 

 in tiie hives. It is well known, that the 

 honey obtained from onion-blossoms is not 

 ht to eat wli( II lir.sl gathered, or when taken 

 from uiiseal."(i conil): but if allowed to re- 

 main in the liive until thorouglily ripened, 

 the onion llavor will be fduud to have passed 

 away— or, at least, siulicieiitly so that it is 

 fouiid not objectionable. Now. another 

 point comes uj): From wlial Mr. P. says, it 

 seems (piite unlikely tiiat tiiis honey came 

 from tiie jessamine at all : and as all the 

 poison honey that we liave any knowledge of 

 came from that single log giim. may it not 

 be that the bees l)y accident gathered some 

 kind of i)oison i)rei)ared to kill insects? As 

 an ilhistration: It would not be very stiange 

 to lind honev-dew on jxitato-tops at certain 

 seiisons of tiie year. Now, if Paris green 

 were sprinkled on tliese potatoes, and the 

 l)ees siioiild gat Iter tiie sweet, we should 

 liave honey that would produce, may be. 

 symptoms "similar to liie above. Can any of 

 our medical friends suggest what the poi.son 

 probably was, from the nature of the symp- 

 toms given? On page 1S2 of the A 1> C book, 

 we hiive a Avell-aiithenlicated case of poison 

 honey from liie mountain huirel. May it 

 not po.ssiblv be that the mountain laurel is 

 also fouuil" near Ihanchville, S. C? Can 

 friend P. enlighten us on tliis point? You 

 will note, by com]»aring the description in 

 the A B C, that t!ie symptoms were quite 

 similar. 



It is interesting to note, in this connec- 



