80 



AMERICAN BEE JODRNAL. 



Me Real Source of Formic Aciil in Honey 



Tratishctcd for the ^'■American Bee Jourmil,'' 

 BY FRANK BENTON. 



After I had shown in two articles in 

 Nos. 5 and 6 of the Sclnveizef'ische 

 BieiienzeituiKj for 1898, that tlae formic 

 acid of honey is derived neither from 

 nectar nor from the poison gland, and 

 also not from the air of the hive, the 

 question arose : Whence does it come, 

 then*? There remained hardly anything 

 else than to look for the source of this 

 substance mi the bee itself. I was con- 

 siderably strengthened in this view by 

 the excellent articles of Schoenfeld in 

 Nos. 45 and 46 of Gerstung's Allge- 

 meine Deutsche Bienenzeitung for 1891. 

 ScRoenfeld makes there an effort to lift 

 this mysierious veil, and calls on chem- 

 ists to enter the intrenchments which he 

 has traced for the capture of this for- 

 tress. I will cite from his article the 

 most striking portions, which serve to 

 limit the question, and which give the 

 desired support to my explanations. He 

 says regarding Muellerhoff's viev/: 



" His supposition that the bees before 

 sealing the cell deposit in it, by means 

 of the sting, a small drop of formic acid, 

 certainly appears to be very natural, 

 and to explain the question in a nut- 

 shell, but it is doubtless incorrect." The 

 reasons then follow. For the proofs on 

 my part I refer to my article cited above 

 in No. 5 of our Swiss bee-journal for 

 1893. Schoenfeld further says : 



" Whether now the formic-acid at- 

 mosphere actually works so energeti- 

 cally upon the honey that the acid forms 

 a chemical union with the honey, is still 

 completely unproved." 



Thus Schoenfeld ascribes a prob- 

 lematic share to the air of the hive as 

 the source of the formic acid, whilst 

 granting to it its full value as an antisep- 

 tic. Schoenfeld says also : 



" Formic acid is a product of the de- 

 •composition of sugar, of rubber, of 



starch, etc., and besides being found in 

 the venom-sacs of bees and ants, is also 

 in many leaves of pines, in nettles and 

 other plants, and in the animal organism 

 in perspiration, in urine, and in blood in 

 small quantities. Undoubtedly it is as 

 certainly found in the blood of the bee 

 in greater or less quantity, or at least in 

 its elements," says Schoenfeld further, 

 "as that it acidifies the whole body of 

 the ant. Otherwise, how would the 

 poison-gland be able to store it up and 

 collect it in the poison-sac, since, as is 

 well-known, ail secretory glands form 

 their secretious from the blood of the 

 animal organism, in that either as sim- 

 ple filtering machines they only draw to 

 themselves and bring to the surface the 

 secretions already formed in the blood, 

 or are themselves really active in the 

 preparation of the product, and only 

 take from the blood the elements which 

 are necessary to the secretion ? But," 

 continued Schoenfeld, "by our declar- 

 ing as physiologically certain that honey 

 could receive its portion of acid during 

 its preparation within the body of the 

 bee, it is not in the least proven that 

 such is in fact the case, nor in what 

 manner the acid gets in the honey, 

 which really only remains a short time 

 in the sucking apparatus and honey-sac 

 of the bee before it is stored up in the 

 cells as the finished product. To bring 

 forward these proofs is a matter for the 

 chemist to undertake." 



Thus far Schoenfeld goes. 



The chemist has heard the call and 

 will obey. Then to the front with chem- 

 istry ! How should I proceed ? The 

 blood of the bee must furnish the start- 

 ing-point. The acid must have its place 

 of origin in the chyle-stomach, and by 

 the latter be furnished to the blood-cir- 

 culation. How could the blood be ob- 

 tained ? Dr. K. Fiedler, instructor in 

 zoology, at the Zurich high schools, un- 

 dertook this work with a skill only 

 equalled by his patience. I got for him 

 successfully several hundred bees, which 

 were caught at the flight-hble, killed, 

 and then, one by one, stuck fast head 

 first in paraflfine. By means of very 

 finely drawn-out capillary tubes, which 

 were introduced into carefully made 

 openings in the forward part of the 

 back of the abdomen, one could some- 

 times draw from the insects a trace of 

 blood, which, in order to avoid any 

 volatilization of formic acid was spurted 

 into a slightly alkaline water-solution. 

 Only wholly colorless blood secured 

 without injury to the inner organs was 

 saved. Finally the collected material 

 was dissolved in a larger quantity of 



