October, 1914- 



American Hee Journal 



The Gentleman and Lady at the Rtght Were Our Hosts. Mr. and Mrs. Bertrand. 



On the E.xtreme Left Sitting is Mr. Thos. W. Cowan. Senior 



Editor of the British Bee Journal 



creased; she had to seek the help of 

 physicians, and was linaliy compelled 

 to enter a hospital, where she hoped to 

 be cured. She was advised to try a 

 honey cure. She did so, and was soon 

 able to resume her work. She was 

 even accepted as member of the assur- 

 ance company to which she had form- 

 erly applied and had been refused. 



Stomach complaints. A woman of 

 60 had grievous stomach pains which 

 became at times intolerable, and no 

 medicines could allay them. She had 

 recourse to honey which brought her 

 almost instantaneous relief in the 

 worst crisis. 



Asthma. An asthmatic lady neighbor, 

 regularly buying honey from me, often 

 declared that this was the only thing 

 which brought her any relief. 



Pulmonary affections. A man of 40, 

 keeping an inn, was suffering from 

 lung trouble. He consulted without 

 relief all the neighboring doctors, and 

 later, professors and specialists of the 

 capital. He finally spent some time in 

 an establishment where this disease is 

 treated with water and dieting, but all 

 was in vain. The disease was increas- 

 ing. One day he met a man who ad- 

 vised him to try a honey cure, assert- 

 ing that such a treatment had saved 

 him from similar conditions. He fol- 

 lowed the advice and was cured in a 

 few months, taking three times per day 

 a spoonful of honey dissolved in milk. 

 He died two years ago at the age of 70. 



Rheumatism. I know of a number 

 of cases where men were cured of 

 rheumatism by keeping bees and eat- 

 ing honey. 



The above cases prove that honey is 

 not only a healthy food but a valuable 

 remedy. This is recognized and ac- 

 knowledged by physicians. One of 

 these said to me: "Honey has never 

 failed to help in chidren diseases." 

 Another physician of renown who 

 possesses an establishment for chil- 

 dren uses honey on a large scale, 

 and has given the following beautiful 

 statement: "Honey is not only a 

 useful human remedy, it is also useful 

 in veterinary practice. The country 

 people often use it for this purpose. 



and one of my friends who is a capable 

 veterinarian, has largely used it in his 

 profession. 



If, as I have shown, honey possesses 

 excellent alimentary and salutary quali- 

 ties, it is the duty of the beekeepers to 

 emphasize this fact by disseminating it 

 and increasing the demand of honey, 

 ambrosia of which Solomon said : 

 "Eat thou honey, my son, for it is 

 good."l 



Zurich, Switzerland. 



Coumai'in and the 

 Principle" 



Bitter 



BY \. F. BONNEY. 



IT has been some months since I be- 

 gan investigation of the so-called 

 bitter principle of sweet clover, led 

 to do so by finding that Mr. Westgate, 

 Agronomist in charge of Clover Inves- 

 tigations, with headquarters in Wash- 

 ington. D. C, had changed his mind 

 about wanting sweet clover without 

 the bitter taste. He had, with others, 

 theorized that a tasteless sweet clover 

 would take the place of the other tre- 

 foils, as alfalfa and white clover for 

 pasture and hay. However, it was next 

 theorized that the "bitter principle" 

 was an element which prevented the 

 sweet clover from causing " bloat " in 

 cattle, said disorder being acute fer- 

 mentive indigestion, with no other 

 evidence than that cattle which ate the 

 sweet clovei did not have the bloat. 

 They did not stop to think that not all 

 animals which eat of white clover do 

 bloat, and that probably 100,000 critters 

 eat white clover where one consumes 

 sweet clover. 



In other words, we do not knozc that 

 sweet clover will not bloat cattle; 

 therefore, we cannot know that it is 

 the bitter principle of sweet clover 

 which prevents indigestion. Why is it 

 not the coumarin itself ? It is more 

 abundant. 



Mr. Westgate took the first opportu- 

 nity to have an analysis made of some 

 sweet clovers, and sent me some very 

 small samples. I could not analyze 



such small masses, so sent them to my 

 friend, Mr. Francis, chemist for Park, 

 Davis & Co., probably the largest 

 chemical and biological establishment 

 in the world. His letter attached shows 

 that he was in the same quandary as 

 myself. Unfortunately, he does not 

 seem to promise an analysis of a bale 

 of the sweet clover hay, and students 

 will have to be satisfied with the light 

 I have so far been enabled to throw 

 on the subject. 



In the meantime, the farmers all over 

 the United States are losing their ha- 

 tred of sweetclover,and Ihavenot been 

 threatened with arrest for some four 

 years in connection with the fragrant 

 weed. 



The attached letters will tell the rest 

 of the story. 



Buck Grove. Iowa. 



Dr, a. F. Bonney. Buck Grove. Iowa.— 



/h;:r Si,-:-l have had extracts made of 

 coumarin from both Mclilotiu a/l',7 and .1/ 

 officiiialn. and am sending the same under 

 separate cover. '1 he crystals certainly taste 

 like the bitter principle inthe Mel i lotus. and 

 I have no reason now to think that these 

 crystals are other than the coumarin The 

 green plants were distilled by steam, and 

 the resulting distillate was extracted with 

 ether, and the solution allowed to evaporate. 

 The crystals from -I/f///,'^//j<;/ii,; appearing 

 gave the bitter taste of coumarin. and 

 showed a melting point of 67 degrees which 

 is exactly what coumarin crystals should 

 show. The Meliiotus nlhiiiialis crystals gave 

 a melting point 3 degrees lower than this 

 owing apparently to the presence of a vola- 

 tile oil. There is also in Melilotus a pres- 

 ence called Melilotic acid. This has an 

 astringent flavor, and probably combines 

 with the coumarin to give the distinctive 

 taste to Melilotus. J. M. Westgate. 



Asrimamift in charec of C/orer Investieations. 



Dr. a. F. Bonnev. Buck Grove, Iowa 



Mv Dear Dr. Bonnev .—Your letter concern- 

 ing coumarin. with theattached report from 

 Mr. Westgate. of the Department of Agri- 

 culture, was received several weeks ago. as 

 were the small samples of crystalline sub- 

 stances extracted from the Melilotus. 



Upon reading your letter I hoped that the 

 samples of crystals extracted from the two 

 plants might be sufficiently larue in quantity 

 to permit of careful purification in our own 

 laboratory, which would enable us to deter- 

 mine its constitution, melting points, etc. 



As you know, however, any woi k along the 

 line of purification was absolutely hopeless, 

 as there was the very smallest quantity of 

 material available, and I assume that this 

 lack of material is one reason why Mr. 

 Westgate could not prosecute his investiga- 

 tion to more definite results. 



Now there is no doubt that coumarin is a 

 prominent and important ingredient in both 

 species of sweet clover: moreover, there is 

 no doubt in my mind but that the presence 

 of this substance in the plant, and conse- 

 quently in the bloom, is responsible in a 

 large measure for the peculiar and exceed- 

 ingly pleasant flavor of the sweet clover 

 honey. 



Mr. Westgate is in error in assuming that 

 coumarin is bitter. The substance in an 

 absolutely pure form chemically is very 

 easily obtainable, and exists in the form of 

 white crystals, which have the peculiar 

 odor and taste characteristic of coumarin. 

 and in its concentrated form also has a pep- 

 pery taste in the mouth. If the substance is 

 pure, however, there is not the slightest 

 suggestion of tilterness. 



As regards this important matter which 

 you have brought up. namely, that one spe- 

 cies of sweet clover differs from the other, 

 no light is given us by this report nor by the 

 examination of these minute samples. It is 

 true that one of the samples of crystals does 

 have a decidedly bitterish taste, whereas 

 the other does not. but the samples were so 

 small and impure that this was not an evi- 

 dence that the coumarin extracted from the 

 sample of sweet clover contained none of 

 the characteristic bitter substances of the 

 plant, whereas both the coumarin and the 

 bitter were extracted from the second 

 plant 



What this bitter substance is can only be 

 determined by a careful chemical analysis 

 of a large Quantity of the drug. Myexperi- 



