For the American Bee Journal. 



Can Honey be used to Cure Con- 

 sumption? 



BY L. L. LANGSTKOTH. 



In the spring of 1861, my wife, being 

 quite feeble, went East for recupera- 

 tion. Instead of improving, her health 

 rapidly failed. When she started for 

 Oxford, in the fall, some of her friends 

 feared that she might never reach there 

 alive. She was very much emaciated, 

 had constant night-sweats, a distress- 

 ing cough, and the usual symptoms of 

 a speedy decline. Anxiously studying 

 what remedies could be used with any 

 hope of success, the following conside- 

 rations determined me to make a trial 

 of the curative powers of pure honey : 



1. I had noticed that from the time of 

 Hippocrates, who wrote more than 2,000 

 years ago, even down to modern wri- 

 ters, there was a strong and continuous 

 testimony in favor of the virtues of 

 honey in curing or alleviating all dis- 

 eases of the breathing organs. Charles 

 Butler, a very learned and accurate 

 writer, in his " History of Bees," pub- 

 lished in 1634, asserts " that it breedeth 

 good blood, stirreth up natural heat, 

 and prolongeth life ;" referring largely 

 to the ancients for his proofs. 



Now, what logicians call communis 

 consensus humani generis, u the common 

 agreement of the human race," on any 

 matter fairly within the range of their 

 observation, has always been consid- 

 ered as coming very near to demonstra- 

 tion itself. 



2. About this time I received from 

 the lateDr.P. J. Kirtland, of Cleveland, 

 Ohio— the mention of whose name will 

 inspire in a wide circle a deep feeling of 

 reverential consideration — a letter in- 

 forming me that one of his pupils had 

 discovered that honey mixed with some 

 other ingredients (honey, however, be- 

 ing the main thing), was a much better 

 remedy in consumptive cases than cod- 

 liver oil. 



3. Nearly at the same time I received 

 a printed statement of the various ex- 

 hibits of bees, hives, honey, &c, made 

 at the World's Fair at London. The 

 name of the Countess Olga, of Russia, 

 was given as exhibiting some linden or 

 basswood honey — " oleaginous honey," 

 so called — with the statement that this 

 kind of honey is in some parts of Rus- 

 sia and Persia in higher repute for 

 curing consumption than cod-liver oil. 

 Linden honey having ;i decided balsamic 

 odor, as well as an oily nature, may 

 possess some peculiar curative virtues. 



4. The bee is almost the only insect 

 known to possess animal heat. To sur- 



vive the winter, it must live in a colony 

 state; for in no other way can it gen- 

 erate and preserve the requisite tem- 

 perature. This heat, of course, comes 

 from its food. To suppose that the 

 Creator has not made this food specially 

 heat-producing, would be like supposing 

 that a good engineer who wants to get 

 up most economically a given amount 

 of steam, would prefer to use soggy 

 wood or slaty coal. We need hardly 

 say, therefore, that chemistry confirms 

 the old belief that honey is a specially 

 heat-producing food. 



5. Consumption is derived from the 

 Latin word consumere, to waste, to burn 

 up. The system of a consumptive per- 

 son is in such a diseased state, that it 

 fails to obtain from the food taken, 

 sufficient nutriment and heat. It seeks, 

 therefore, to make up the deficiency by 

 preying upon the fatty tissues. When 

 the body becomes so emaciated that 

 this can no longer be done, the patient 

 dies ; just as the Are goes out when the 

 fuel is all consumed. To prevent the 

 diseased system from thus consuming 

 itself, physicians have recommended 

 cod-liver oil and other heat-producing 

 substances. But if honey " breedeth 

 good blood and greatly stirreth up ani- 

 mal heat," may it not prove one of the 

 most potent and pleasant remedies for 

 consumption V A very aged man once 

 being asked by Alexander how he had 

 secured such a vigorous old age, re- 

 plied : " By honey within and oil with- 

 out" — that is by eating honey and 

 anointing himself with oil. 



Having duly weighed all the above 

 considerations, I gained the consent of 

 my wife to make a faithful trial of 

 honey. It occurred to me that its effi- 

 cacy could be much better tested by 

 using it in small quantities and at very 

 frequent intervals, than in any other way. 

 If one wishes to keep up a uniform tem- 

 perature in a room, by the use of a 

 given amount of fuel, it cannot be done 

 by using a large amount at once, with 

 all the dampers open ; but by gaining 

 complete control over the combustion, 

 so that the heat can be regularly sup- 

 plied. This idea of small but oft- 

 repeated doses is new, I think, and very 

 important. If we should " eat honey 

 because it is good," we should also, on 

 the same good authority, " eat not too 

 much," lest its too free use be followed 

 by nausea and loathing. Acting upon 

 my suggestions, Mrs. Langstroth took 

 a teaspoonful of pure honey, out of the 

 comb, at least every hour when she was 

 not asleep. She had not taken it long 

 before it was evidently helping her. 

 Her worst symptoms began gradually 

 to disappear, and in about a year, she 



