1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



101 



the stomach, carries away all superfluous mois- 

 ture, aids digestion, thins and purifies the Wood, 

 and animates and strengthens the breast, nerves 

 and lungs. Honey is therefore to be used when 

 suffering with a cough, hoarseness, stoppage of the 

 lungs, shortness of breath, and especially xcith the 

 best results, in all affections of the chest. 



Many persons afflicted with various species of 

 consumption, thank the use of good honey, either 

 for their entire restoration to health, or for the 

 mitigation of their often painful condition of 

 body and mind. 



Honey is also an excellent remedy for the oc- 

 casional inactivity of the abdominal organs, and 

 a means of strengthening weak nerves, especially 

 with women. 



For severe coughing, barley water mixed with 

 honey and the juice of lemons, drank warm, is a 

 very pleasant relief. It appeases and mitigates 

 fevers, and owing to its taste, and its soothing 

 qualities, it is used as a gargle. 



Honey can also be used with advantage in 

 asthma, in constipation, in sore throat ; promotes 

 perspiration, lessens phlegm, and is very healing 

 to the chest, sore from coughing. 



With old persons, the use of honey is very 

 useful, since it produces warmth and a certain 

 activity of the skin. 



For persons leading a sedentary life, and suf- 

 fering from costiveness, and especially from piles, 

 pure unadulterated honey, either mixed in 

 their drink, used alone, or on bread, is the best 

 and healthiest means of relief. 



Honey has also great value as a medicine for 

 children, and is readily partaken of by them in a 

 choice dainty dish. It is especially useful to 

 children afflicted with scrofula or rickets. 



In difficult teething, rub the gums with a mix- 

 ture of honey and an emulsion of quinces. 



For the removing of worms, honey has often 

 been beneficially used, and it is often used in dis- 

 eases of the mouth and throat. 



Honey mixed with flour and spread on linen 

 or leather is a simple remedy for bringing to a 

 head, or to maturity, boils, &c. Also, honey 

 mixed with flour or fried onions, serves an ex- 

 cellent purpose as a covering for any hard swell- 

 ing or callosity or abscess ; and for ulcers it is 

 often mixed with turpentine, tar, and tincture 

 of myrrh. 



A plaster made of unslaked lime and honey 

 has sometimes relieved most obstinate sciatica. 



If good honey is applied to inflamed wounds 

 or boils, it lessens the drawing, quiets the pain 

 and produces a good festering or suppuration ; 

 impure honey, on the contrary, irritates the in- 

 flamed surface, which will therefore not heal. 

 Undoubtedly, for all wounds, pustulous inflam- 

 mations, bruises and bad festerings, honey is the 

 best and most reliable remedy, and affords, when 

 it is pure and unadulterated, quicker and safer 

 help than all other known plasters ; all that is 

 needed is to spread it rather thick on a piece of 

 linen, place it upon the fresh wound, bind it fast, 

 and renew the plaster every four or five hours. 

 Of course, if bones are broken, surgical aid must 

 be had. 



Honey-dough — arto mele — a plaster made out i 

 of honey and rye flour or rye bread, into which 



henbane or other narcotic substance is mixed, is 

 an excellent means of irritation, which should 

 be used in festering and bringing the sore to a 

 head, and assuage the drawing and pain. 



It should be warmed, spread on a piece of 

 linen and placed upon the sore part. 



For convalescents, is good, purer and most re- 

 fined honey a true balm of life, and is needed by 

 our heroic wounded warriors, whose health has 

 been more or less destroyed, and whose painful 

 disease appears long after their discharge from 

 the army. 



For persons who are weakened through de- 

 bauchery, honey is, of all helps, the best nour- 

 ishment, since it not only removes the poisons 

 in the system, but also through its virtues 

 strengthens the system, hence it has made itself 

 so necessary to the inhabitants of the Orient. 



II. 



The reasons why Honey has gradually disap- 

 peared from its honored place on the table and 

 in the medicine chest. 



When we reflect over the important qualities 

 of honey, and at the same time see how little it 

 is utilized at present, the unwelcome question is 

 presented to us : Why has honey lost in the 

 lapse of ages that value as food and medicine 

 that it once held? 



A kind Providence still sends us in abundance 

 this beneficent product, and the bees with the 

 same speed and skill still gather from the flowers 

 the same sweet nectar, and store it in their cells 

 for the blessing and well being of mankind ; but 

 man and his surroundings have changed, and 

 herein lies the retrogression of our times, in 

 which honey as a food, and as a medicine, is 

 gradually losing its honored place. 



The first blow that honey received was the 

 introduction of sugar. Although the inhabi- 

 tants of Europe were acquainted with the sugar 

 cane before the crusades, it was not until 1000, 

 that its use became general, and then, as an article 

 of fashion, it was introduced and spread rapidly. 

 Owing to this, honey was less and less used, 

 followed naturally by the decay of bee-culture, 

 and the abolition of the bee-master's guild. The 

 skill and experience of the old practical bee- 

 keepers was gradually lost. Amateurs took the 

 place of practical beekeepers, and bee-keeping 

 soon became a sort of play, in which the prac- 

 tical farmer believed he had nothing to do ; 

 hence, in many agricultural works of that pe- 

 riod, there is nothing on bee-culture. Want of 

 principle, selfishness, fraud and greediness of 

 gain, also often the ignorance of both the bee- 

 keeper and honey-dealer, deluded many, and led 

 others not only to doubt its healing virtues, 

 but to discard its use. I will state some of the 

 causes. 



a. In order that honey might have a clearer 

 appearance, and have a greater consistency or 

 weigh more, it was adulterated with starch, 

 millet flour, pea-flour, or chestuut-flour, owing to 

 which, unless it was immediately used, the 

 honey became sour. Alas, then, the poor suffer- 

 ers that used such a mixture as medicine, and 

 expected a restoration of health therefrom ! 



