THE AMERICAN APIGULTURIST. 



269 



initely assert that invert sugar syrup 

 had been added as an intended adul- 

 terant. I think it quite possible that 

 bees having access to sucrose food 

 might at one time produce a honey 

 like that in Table No. 2, and at 

 another like that in Table No. 3. 



Table No. 4. These honeys all ap- 

 pear to be genuine although it is hard 

 to draw the line between such sam- 

 ples as Nos. 31 and 32 and those 

 found in Table No. 3. The mean 

 reading to the left is 7.40 divisions 

 before inversion and 1 1 . 1 1 afterwards. 

 The mean of undetermined solids is 

 7.56 and the percentage of reducing 

 sugar before inversion to total solids, 

 86.77. The means of sucrose as de- 

 termined by both methods are low 

 and fairly agree, although, as in the 

 other tables, they differ widely in 

 single instances. 



Table No. 5. These honeys, ob- 

 tained directly or indirectly from well 

 known apiarists, I have every reason 

 to believe to be pure. If they con- 

 tain any adulteration it has been 

 added by artificial feeding and not 

 intentionally. It will be observed 

 that these honeys are strongly tevo- 

 rotatory and indeed so much so that 

 some of them miglit have appeared 

 in Table No. 3. 



It wiM be instructive to compare 

 the numbers in the above tables with 

 those obtained by other analysts. 

 Koenig- gives the following means 

 of seventeen analyses : 



O. Hehner^ gives the following 

 numbers as the mean of twenty-five 

 samples : 



2Nahriingsniittel. p. IGl. 

 'Analyst, Vol. 9, pp. G4 et seq. 



Glucose, 67.2 per cent. 



Water, 19.2 " " 



Not determined, 13.5 " " 



According to Hehner the fluidity 

 of the honey does not depend on the 

 amount of water it contains. In ten 

 cases the quantity of glucose after 

 inversion was less than before, in one 

 instance 5.23 per cent less. The 

 rotating power was generally zero, a 

 condition which I have never found 

 in American honeys genuine or ar- 

 tificial. These conclusions are so at 

 variance with ordinary experience as 

 to indicate that the samples analyzed 

 were anomalous or the methods em- 

 ployed unreliable. 



Sieben-* gives the mean composition 

 of sixty samples of honey as follows : 



Dextrose, 34.71 per cent. 



Ltevlose, 39-24 " " 

 Sucrose, 1.80 " " 



Water, 19.98 " " 



Non-sugars, 5.02 " " 



The^oUds not determined, as will 

 be seen by the analyses presented in 

 this paper, are of considerable impor- 

 tance. In adulterations wth the 

 starch sugar syrup these undeter- 

 mined solids consist chiefly of mal- 

 tose and dextrine. In many other 

 cases dextrine, as will be shown fur- 

 ther on, is doubtless present. 



Genuine honey has also a slightly 

 acid reaction. This acidity is due 

 either to certain organic acids derived 

 from the plants or, more probably, to 

 an acid furnished by the bee itself, the 

 kind and quantity of acids in honey 

 have not been accurately studied. I 

 have found the total acidity meas- 

 ured as formic acid to be about .02 

 per cent. That the acid furnished by 

 the bee is formic there is litde doubt. 

 WilP states that he has found the ac- 

 tive principle of the poison of all hy- 

 menoptera to be formic acid. Carlet^ 



* Zeitsch. d. Ver. f. d. Ruebenzucker Indus- 

 trie, Vol. 34, pp. 8o7 et seq. 



* Sclileiden and Foreps Not., Sept., 1848, p. 

 17. 



Comptes Rendus, June 23, 1884, p. 1550. 



