98 



THE AMEEICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Nov., 



rifyingit, examined the various species of honey, 

 experimented in its application and working, 

 noted carefully the results, and thus developed 

 rich and valuable materials, part of which I 

 present in the following pages. I shall still con- 

 tinue earnestly to press forward in my re- 

 searches. 



So far as my knowledge goes, there is no book 

 yet written, which treats exclusively of honey 

 as a medicine. 



I earnestly hope, that through this work, 

 honey may receive its deserved value, be brought 

 into the family, and that its blessed powers will 

 quickly and safely be appreciated. 



Should what I write prove of benefit to' but 

 but one person, I will feel that I have not writ- 

 ten in vain. 



Written on this day of the holy St. Ambro- 

 sius, the patron of bees. 



Karl Gatter. 



I. 



Honey, — Its History and Uses as an Article of 

 Pood and Medicine. 



a. HISTORY OF HONEY. 



Honey is gathered by the bees from plants, es- 

 pecially the nectar of the plants, and through in- 

 stinct 10 sucked up by the bees, and transferred 

 into the cells of the combs. The juice varies 

 in color from white to brown, is of a rather 

 thick consistency, peculiar smell, and sweet 

 taste ; is a vegetable animal product, and differs 

 from sugar in its mure oily ingredients and its 

 balsamic qualities and virtues. 



To most persons, honey is a pleasant food, and 

 to but few is its taste and smell disagreeable, 

 which especially arises from- the volatile oily 

 portion(l), derived from the flower and transfer- 

 red to the cells with the honey by the bees. 



Much trouble has been taken by many per- 

 sons to produce honey by artificial means, and 

 for this purpose have employed the juices of 

 fruits and of various plants, but attempts have 

 resulted in the production of only a sweet sub- 

 stance, possessing neither the taste nor quality of 

 honey ; hence the gathering and storing of the 

 beneficent product will remain with the bees. 

 Their honey receptacle is the chemical labora- 

 tory in which, under a wise and good Provi- 

 dence, the juices of plants are gathered, purified, 

 and separated from all foreign and impure sub- 

 stances, and then stored in the cells. 



Honey tltus gathered, is the essence of the bloom- 

 ing yoimg plant world, in the height of its life, 

 gathered from countless aromatic blossoms, and 

 containing that true balsam in it, which with great 

 effect causes the lengthening, rejuvenating and pre- 

 serving of human life. 



Honey, without doubt, was, during the early 

 ages of man's existence on earth, his first source 

 of nourishment. It, therefore, is no cause of 

 wonder, that the producer of this beneficent 

 product of nature — the bee — has been the steady 



(1 ) Matter in itself not the least dangerous, ex- 

 cept to curtain individuals, having a tendency to 

 sourness in the stomach, flatulency or diarrhoea. 



companion of civilization, transplanted by man 

 from the forest to the yard and garden, and be- 

 come as it were a domestic animal. 



Information relative to the bee reaches back 

 to the earliest ages of which we have any his- 

 tory, and the following shows how far in those 

 early ages the study of bee-culture had advanced. 

 Solon, already, six hundred years B. C., enacted 

 a law, that bee hives in the cultivated fields must 

 stand three hundred feet apart ; and Homer, 

 Herodotus, Aristotle, Cato, Varro, Virgil, Pliny, 

 Palladius, Cornelius, Celsus, Julius, Hygi- 

 nius, Columella and others, composed and wrote 

 panegyrics concerning the activity, cleanliness, 

 skill, economy and public spirit of these insects ; 

 the beloved bee father, Aristomachus, of Solus, 

 in Sicily, for fifty-eight years unweariedly pur- 

 sued his apiarian studies, and composed a work 

 on bees ; another honored bee master, Hyliscus, 

 called by his cotemporaries "Agios," devoted 

 his whole life to the study and observation of the 

 bees. In Columella's time, about the middle 

 of the last century, bee-culture appears to have 

 reached its highest standard. 



Honey was the common and loved food of the 

 ancients, and with many, it and fruit composed 

 their only food. At the table of the Persians, 

 Grecians, and Romans, it was very prominent, 

 and was used in wonderful quantities ; not only 

 was most food sweetened and prepared with 

 honey, but most of their drinks were made out 

 of honey, or were sweetened by it. 



The Pramnian wine, a sour wine in the neigh- 

 borhood of Smyrna in Asia Minor, was, when 

 mixed with honey, a favored drink, and was 

 sent to a great distance (2). The fruit was 

 steeped in honey, and placed on the table Us a 

 dessert, and eaten either pure or with roasted 

 pappy. 



Their esteem for it was very great. Virgil 

 calls it donum cccleste — the gift of Heaven. It 

 was the usual food of Pythagoras ; Democritus 

 recommends it to all who wish to live long ; and 

 Pliny tells of an old man over one hundred years 

 old, named Rurnilius Pollio, who enjoyed a mar- 

 vellous good health and strength. He was pre- 

 sented to the emperor Augustus, who asked him 

 by what means he was able to retain to so great 

 age the liveliness of his spirits and strength of 

 his body. His answer was, Intus melle, ex'ra 

 o'eo ; internally through honey, externally 

 through oil. 



The Greeks and Romans brought honey as an 

 offering to their gods, and every animal sacri- 

 ficed on the altar was sprinkled with honey ; it 

 was used for embalming the dead, employed at 

 the funeral sacrifice, and sprinkled over the 

 grave. 



Alexander's warriors in the Indian conquest, 

 enjoyed themselves with the honey found there, 

 and the conqtiered people had to pay as part of 

 their tribute, honey and wax, just as years after- 



(2) Many wines will be pleasanter to the taste 

 when mixed with honey ; hence the Grecians even yet 

 prepare their poorer species of wines in this manner, 

 and introduce them to the trade as Malaga and Mal- 

 vazier. 



