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 Published Weekly at $1.00 a Year, by George W. York & Co., 334 Dearborn St. 



QBORQB W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL, MARCH 15, 1906 



VoLXLVI-No.ll 



^ 



Cbitonal Hotes 

 ant) Comments 



j 



The Bee's Instinct of Self-Sacrifice 



In an interesting article in the British Bee Journal, 

 Col. H. J. O. Walker discusses this matter, saying in his 

 first paragraph : 



Recently, in the journal of the Alsace-Lorraine Bee- 

 Keepers' Association, there was an account of an experi- 

 ment made by Dr. Buttel-Reepen, a well-known German 

 scientific writer on bee-matters, which was designed to test 

 the often reported devotion to their queen displayed, under 

 circumstances of sore trial, by the workers of the hive. The 

 queen, with about a hundred attendants, were confined in a 

 box suitable for observation and containing but little food. 

 In 48 hours signs of feebleness were apparent. Two days 

 later all but 4 of the workers had died, the queen being still 

 vigorous. Soon only one worker was left alive, and she, 

 though no longer able to stand up, was seen trying to be- 

 stow a last droplet of honey on the queen, who came to her 

 begging to be fed. An hour later the worker had perished, 

 and the mother-bee was still walking briskly to and fro. A 

 piteous tale ; let us hope that the doctor's scientific curiosity 

 is satisfied. 



After some discussion of the matter, referring to the 

 care which the queen takes of her own life, and the readi- 

 ness of the workers to sacrifice theirs for the common weal, 

 Col. Walker goes on to say : 



Yet we should err if, with our forefathers, we were to 

 attribute to her a sentiment of filial devotion, seeing that 

 throughout the animal world, even where in the early days 

 the progeny has been dependent upon the parent for suste- 

 nance, there is no reason to believe that such a feeling, if 

 indeed it ever existed, outlasts the period of dependency. 

 The desire to preserve the mother-bee must be purely in- 

 stinctive. 



Whatever the scientists may decide, it will be a hard 

 thing for the lay bee-keeper to dismiss from his mind all 

 thought of sentiment on the part of bees, saying that they 

 have no mental and moral characteristics, but are merely 

 so many machines moved by an instinct they can not resist, 

 hence deserving neither credit nor blame for anything they 

 may do. He is likely to go on admiring the loyalty of the 

 workers to their queen, saying that it is loyalty all the 

 same, even if it be instinctive. It may be unscientific, but 

 we of the laity are likely to continue saying : 



" The affection of her subjects for the queen is some- 

 thing delightful to behold ; but the anger of the bees toward 



the bee-keeper, when that anger is fully aroused, is some- 

 thing likely to awaken a kindred feeling in the mind of the 

 more highly organized disturber," 



More Comb Honey Misrepresentation 



This time it is in school text-book called " Food and Its 

 Functions : A Text-Book for Studentsof Cookery, by James 

 Knight, Lecturer in Physiology and Hygiene, High School 

 of Glasgow ; Lecturer in Dietetics to the Glasgow School 

 of Cookery and the West End School of Cookery." 



Under " Lesson 37— Food Accessories," we find the fol- 

 lowing : 



Honey shows the following composition : — 



Percent 



Water at 100° C 18 07* 



Water above 100° C ......' 7^99 



Levulose .M.21 



Dextrose 37.58 



Ash ........ o!l4 



It is thus essentially a mixture of levulose and dex- 

 trose, but it contains in addition mannite or manna-sugar, 

 wax, organic acids, pollen, alkaloid matters and bitters 

 derived from plants upon which the bees have fed, a small 

 quantity of cane-sugar and alcohol, the latter always pres- 

 ent in natural honey. Honey is occasionally intoxicating ; 

 in Nepaul spring honey is avoided for this reason, and the 

 story of its effects upon Xenophon's troops will naturally 

 recur to the memory. In this instance the honey was de- 

 rived from a species of azalea (Azalea Pontica) ; the flavor 

 of Narbonne honey is due to rosemary, that of Hymettus 

 honey in Greece to flowers of the labiate order, while in our 

 own country the difference in weight, color, and flavor be- 

 tween flower and heather honey is well known, the latter 

 being the stronger of the two. Honey is largely adulterated 

 by glucose syrup, as above described, and this " honey " 

 may be sold as low as 2d per pound. Since starch-sugar is 

 made by the action of sulphuric acid on starch, it has always 

 from IS to 20 percent of unfermented substances, which 

 maybe detected in the polarimeter by their positive rota- 

 tion, whereas natural honey, consisting largely of invert- 

 sugar, shows a negative rotation. The ash left on igniting 

 pure honey is always alkaline, and contains phosphoric 

 acid, while honey made from glucose has a neutral ash. 

 Not only is the honey itself often wholly or partly artificial, 

 but our American friends show a misdirected ingenuity in 

 making artificial honey-comb so as still further to delude 

 the consumer. The cells are made of paraffin, and the tout 

 ensemble looks even more inviting than pure honey. The 

 fraud may be detected by sulphuric acid, which carbonizes 

 ordinary wax, but not paraffin. 



From Australia there has appeared within the last half- 

 dozen years honey derived from the eucalyptus-tree. It is 

 of a deep orange color but transparent, generally solid in 

 such a climate as ours, but syrupy in warm weather. It 

 contains 62 percent of sugar and 17 percent of eucalyptus 

 oil, so that it has the smell and flavor of eucalpytus essence, 

 and it is thus valuable as a medicine. It is given in warm 

 milk and water in doses of one or two teaspoonfuls twice or 



