Chap. 44.] POISONED HONEY. 341 



There is a village, called Hostilia, on the banks of the river 

 Padus : the inhabitants of it, when food 73 fails the bees in their 

 vicinity, place the hives in boats and convey them some five 

 miles up the river in the night. In the morning the bees go 

 forth to feed, and then return to the boats; their locality 

 being changed from day to day, until at last, as the boats sink 

 deeper and deeper in the water, it is ascertained that the hives 

 are full, upon which they are taken home, and the honey is 

 withdrawn. 



(13.) In Spain, too, for the same purpose, they have the 

 hives carried from place to place on the backs of mules. 



CHAP. 44. POISONED HONEY, AND THE REMEDIES TO BE EMPLOYED 



BY THOSE WHO HAVE EATEN OF IT. 



Indeed, the food of bees is of the very greatest importance, 

 as it is owing to this that we meet with poisonous 74 honey 

 even. At Heraclia 76 in Pontus, the honey is extremely perni- 

 cious in certain years, though it is the same bees that make 

 it at other times. Authors, however, have not informed us 

 from what flowers this honey is extracted ; we shall, therefore, 

 take this opportunity of stating what we have ascertained 

 upon the subject. 



There is a certain plant which, from the circumstance that 

 it proves fatal to beasts of burden, and to goats in particular, 

 has obtained the name of " segalethron," 76 and the blossoms of 



73 This plan is still adopted on the river Po, the ancient Padus, as also 

 at Beauce, in the south of France, where the hives are carried from place 

 to place upon carts. In the north of England it is the practice to carry 

 the hives to the moors in autumn. 



74 This has been doubted by Spiolmann, but it is nevertheless the truth ; 

 the nature of the sugar secreted by the glands of the nectary, being ana- 

 logous to that of the plant which furnishes it. The honey gathered from 

 aconite in Switzerland has been known to produce vertigo and even deli- 

 rium. Dr. Barton also gives a similar account of the effects of the poisonous 

 honey collected from the Kalmia latifolia in Pennsylvania ; and Geoffroi 

 Saint Hilaire says that, having eaten in Brazil some honey prepared by a 

 wasp called " lecheguana," his life was put in very considerable danger 

 thereby. Xenophon also speaks of the effects of the intoxicating or mad- 

 dening honey upon some of the Ten Thousand in their retreat. 



75 The rhododendrons and rose laurels, Fee says, which are so numerous 

 in these parts, render the fact here stated extremely probable. 



76 " Goats' death." Fee says that this is the Rhododendron Ponticum 

 of Linna3us. Desfontaines identifies it with the Azalea Pontica of modern 

 botany. 



