80 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Oct., 



[For the Ameiican Bee Journal.] 



Poisonous Honey. 



One morning, just before the close of his daily- 

 visit to the patients of a hospital of which he 

 was the chief physician, a professor of surgery, 

 accotupanied by his pupils, was called to a man 

 who had just been brought to the hospital. 



The sick man appeared to be about fifty years 

 old ; his blear eyes and repulsive features showed 

 the marks of a vulgar and debauched life. He 

 was suffering from an abscess in the throat. 

 That abscess, large as my fist, and pressing on 

 his windpipe, interrujited breathing, and suftbca- 

 tion was imminent. 



^^ Messieurs,'''' said the doctor to his pupils, "if 

 immediate relief were not given to this sufferer, 

 the air would in a few minutes cease to reach 

 the lungs, and he must die. Fortunately it is 

 in our power to save him." 



"While speaking, the doctor had drawn a dis- 

 secting knife from his truss, and directing two 

 interns to hold the patient firmly, he made a 

 deep cut in the abscess. Then bending himself 

 over the sufferer, with his fingers he parted the 

 edges of the wound, applied his lips to the open- 

 ing, and drew out by suction and spat out two 

 mouthfuls of violet colored pus. 



When, after this act of self devotion, the doctor 

 received from the hands of an attendant a glass 

 of vinegar and water, to rinse his mouth, the 

 eyes of his pupils were suffused with tears of 

 admiration. 



That physician, so devoted to his art and to 

 his patients, was (or is, for I hope he is yet 

 living) Doctor Ricord, Professor of Surgery in 

 the University of Paris. His practice, at the 

 time, was worth fifty thousand dollars a year. 



"Our business sometimes demands true acts 

 of energy," said the doctor, turning to his pupils. 

 "I trust that in a similar emergency each one 

 of you will remember this example and not 

 suffer his courage to fail. In such case you will 

 feel that the happiness resulting from duty 

 accomplished, is far greater than the act itself. 

 Such an operation involves no danger. The 

 virus of the pus, as well as the venom of animals, 

 has no power to afl'ect the mouth or the organs 

 of nutrition. You may without danger suck 

 the stings of bees and the bites of vipers or rattle- 

 snakes." 



I beg all, especially my fair readers, to excuse 

 me for having presented before them a picture 

 apparently so rei^ulsive. I hope for their pardon, 

 in view of the greatness of the admirable act. 



This story, narrated to me by a friend of mine, 

 a student of medicine, who witnessed the scene, 

 was recalled to my memory by perusing an article 

 of Mr. Langstroth's, on bee poison, in the 

 American Bee Journal for April last, page 221. 



Doubtless Dr. Ricord, less acquainted with bees 

 than Mr. Langstroth, was less competent to 

 speak of the effects of bee poison ; and certainly 

 that venom, if put on the tongue, causes head- 

 ache in some cases, as I have myself experienced. 

 Yet I cannot agree with Mr. Langstroth, when 

 he says that is to the poison contained in the 



honey that its influence on the stomachs of 

 certain persons is attributable. 



Mr. Langstroth says that the bee poison dries 

 on the honey, and a few lines further on, that it 

 is very volatile. A thing volatile does not dry, 

 it evaporates. 



But why attribute to the bee poison the cholic 

 experienced by certain persons, after eating 

 honey ? I cannot drink milk without suffering 

 from cholic. The leather soup, as the coffee 

 milk is named by the Societe Imperiale et 

 Ce.ntvale d^ Agriculture of France,* is for me 

 a powerful purgative. Raw. fruits, or such as 

 are not perfectly ripe, do not suit me, yet I 

 can eat them, without ill results, if cooked. But 

 by cooking honey loses its delicacy. 



I did, however, discover a way to enjoy all 

 these good things without suffering. It is by 

 beginning with a little at first, and eating a little 

 more the next day — being careful not to eat be- 

 tween my meals. After soi^ie days, my stomach 

 having become accustomed to them, I can eat 

 them freely, though in moderation. To say that 

 my stomach has become accustomed to them, 

 does not express precisely my understanding of 

 the acquired possibility of eating with inyjunity 

 what at first was injurious. Everybody knows 

 that soap (itself made of soda) is better than 

 soda for the removal of grease spots from gar- 

 ments. It is because it contains itself some 

 portion of grease. The stomach acts in a similar 

 nranuer. The gastric juice has to dissolve the 

 food. The first time that such food as honey or 

 milk is presented and put in contact with it, the 

 gastric juice does not possess the elementary 

 constituents necessary to enable it to perform 

 the work. But on the morrow, the blood, con- 

 stituted in part of the honey or milk, or what- 

 ever else, eaten and digested the day before, 

 brings to the stomach and supplies the gastric 

 juice with a portion of the essential elements 

 needed, and the food, now better digested, 

 passes without painful sensations. I have many 

 times experienced this in myself, and observed 

 it in the case of many others also. 



Ch. Dadant. 

 Hamilton, Ills., Aug. 7, 1871. 



* See Report of the Department of Agriculture for 

 1869, page 634. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Hives and Honey. 



I am again seated, pen in hand, with the inten- 

 tion of boring the readers of the .lournal with 

 an effusion on the subject of honey bees. So 

 many of the fraternity add a little information 

 to every page of the Journal, just as the bee adds 

 drop after drop to the store of honey in the hive, 

 that it makes others anxious to contribute a little 

 of their experience, though it may be only a mite. 



It seems to be the fashion at present to de- 

 scribe hives, and charge a fee for describing, ac- 

 cording to one's eminence in apiarian knowl- 

 edge. Friend Gallup charges one dollar, thus 

 putting himself down at 100 per cent., as at par. 



