I«87 



GLEANlGNS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Sol 



slip the can into the dipper and hold it out of the 

 way. To prevent the boles in the can I'roin becom- 

 ing frequently clogged, put in the top of the can a 

 little wire strainer, such as are used for straining 

 herbs. C. C. Mir.i.Eit. 



Marengo, 111. 



BEE-STING POISON AS A REMEDIAL 

 AGENT. 



ITS USES AND EFFECTS ON THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 



TN Gi-EANiNGS for June 1, 1886, page 4.56, you 

 ^ say: "Now have the friends who buy the poi- 

 ^r son-sacks (of the honey-bee) been aware of the 

 ■*■ curative properties of the remedy for croup 

 and similar diseases? " I hope, before you 

 again revise the A B C of Bee Culture you will fully 

 acquaint yourself with all the uses that are made 

 of the honey-bee. If you will step into the office of 

 some of the physicians of Medina and call for Her- 

 ring's Revised Materia Medica, and look at page 93, 

 you will, I trust, feel that your time has been well 

 spent. Please pardon this suggestion, as I took it 

 for granted that you are ignorant, allow me to say 

 negligently ignorant, of the many uses that the 

 poison of the honey-bee is made use of in sickness. 

 The poison of the honey-bee, Apium viru><, and 

 Apis mellifica, can always be found in the office of 

 more than ten thousand physicians in the United 

 States, and ranks with the most precious remedies. 

 If many bees be placed in a wide-mouthed vial, 

 well shaken, and drenched with live times their 

 own weight of dilute alcohol, we have a prepara- 

 tion known as Apis mellifica. If we press the poi- 

 son from the honey-bee on to a piece of sugar or 

 into a vial, we then have a preparation known as 

 Apium virus. By triturating the poison-sacks in 

 mortar, with sugar or sugar of milk, we have the 

 same; viz., Apium virus. But any of the prepara- 

 tions above named are still too dangerous to be 

 used until further diluted. By careful experi- 

 ments it is found that there are about forty dis- 

 tinct abnormal symptoms set up after repeated dos- 

 es of bee-poison taken internally. Some of the symp- 

 toms become dangerous if the use of the poison be 

 long continued, especially the moral and mental 

 symptoms growing out of the continued use and in- 

 creased dose of the poison. How many of the 

 readers of Gleanings would desire to undergo the 

 mental and nervous suffering which father Lang- 

 stroth underwent from the effects of too much bee- 

 poison in his system? The sj'mptoms related by 

 father Langstroth correspond with the provings of 

 Apis mellifica, made and published by Dr. Constant- 

 ine Herring, fifty years ago. I will not mention the 

 numerous diseases that bee-poison is used in, but 

 will say, in answer to the editor's inquiry, that we 

 know that bee-poison is good in croup as well as in 

 asthma. I will add, that the continued use of bee- 

 poison internall.v will greatly increase the fear of 

 death. Those of us who handle bees much, stand- 

 ing and working over open hives, inhaling the odor 

 of the bee-hive, should not be surprised if we have 

 some queer symptoms, though we may not be 

 much stung by them. T mean by this, that it is my 

 belief that inhaling the odor of bees is poison to 

 some people. I know of no remedy that is a sure 

 cure or a palliative for the sting of the honey-bee. 

 I have noticed, that when I have applied iodine 

 or aqua ammonia to the place where stung, and eith- 



er of the remedies applied cause considerable i)ain. 

 that the swelling would be less. There are, with- 

 out doubt, many drugs that would neutralize the 

 poison of a bee-sting, if the remedy could be forced 

 down into the puncture made by the shaft of the 

 bee, to the furthest depth where the poison wa8 

 deposited. I suppose that many of the readers of 

 Gleanings have felt pain in decayed teeth imme- 

 diately after having been stung. I have experi- 

 enced this feeling many times after being stung 

 on the finger. J. W. Porter. M. D. 



Ponca, Nebr., Sept. 27, 1887. 



Friend P., we have consulted the book 

 you mention, and thank you for directing 

 us to it. It is true, the poison of the 

 bee-sting is recommended tor a great num- 

 ber of diseases, as you say ; but the matter 

 as we found it in the book is liardly suitable 

 for a bee-journal, on account of teclinicali- 

 ties, etc. I believe, however, that it is little 

 used by allopathic doctors. If the odor from 

 the poison inhaled in handling bees is detri- 

 mental to some people, it ought, if I am cor- 

 rect, to be beneticial to some other people. 

 We have had pretty good evidence that it is 

 valuable in certain cases of rheumatism. 

 Now, inasmuch as a great many people 

 have been improved in their general healtli 

 by engaging in bee culture, may it not be 

 they need just this corrective you mentionV 

 I do not know that I ever experienced any 

 pain in a decayed tooth by being stung oii 

 some other part of the body ; but I remem- 

 ber distinctly being surprised to find a clear 

 and distinct pain located somewhere quite 

 remote from where the stirrg*was inflicted. 



UNFINISHED SECTIONS IN THE FALL. 



what to do with them, and how to kill 

 birds, etc. 



fRlEND ROOT:-This is one of the queries to 

 which I have given much study, and have ex- 

 perimented in different ways. It is a very 

 dauby, unpleasant job to extract a thousand 

 or more sections; and unless they are set 

 back upon the hives to be cleaned up by the bees 

 they are all stuck up with granulated honey in the 

 spring, which the bees can not use and do not like 

 to clean up; in fact, I would rather have a section 

 of good fresh foundation than such a dauby one. 



The next worse thing I have found is to place 

 these unfinished sections back on the hives in the 

 spring, just as they are taken ott' in the fall. As 

 some of the honey has soured, some of the cells are 

 granulated solid. Some of the combs are cracked, 

 as the result of frost and cold. All things consider- 

 ed, I think it one of the most discouraging and dis- 

 agreeable tasks we can impose upon the bees. 



By accident I discovered that the changing or 

 moving of sections in the fall had a tendency to 

 cause bees to carry the honey below. I caught on 

 to the hint, and now have no trouble in making 

 them carry it all below, when and where I want it, 

 leaving the sections in the best possible condition 

 for another season. As I am usually very busy, I 

 try as often as possible to " kill two birds with one 

 stone," so I take off my last honey, and, as far as 

 possible, prepare my bees for winter at the same 

 time as follows: Commencing at the first hive in 

 the first row, I remove the surplus crates and 



