BEE KEEPERS. • 42^ 



Some times poisonous particles are taken from the flowers, and find their unj 

 into honey. It is well known that headache and vomiting often follow the nee of 

 ordinary pure honey. The caution of the economical host, therefore,, wae not 

 wholly out of form when he placed his honey before his guests with the in-vitatic* 

 to eat freely, but he added, "Remember, if it makes you sick, it ia the worst eick- 

 ness in the world." 



In these cases economy, if not wealth, is certainly health. The honey derived' 

 from a sp«>cies of rhododendron, the Azalea pontiea, is said to produce these toxic 

 effects. The soldiers of Cyrus appear to have met with a honey of this kind, th» 

 effects of which are described in the following selection from Xenophoris Am-- 

 basis : 



" And there was in a village near Trebionde a number of bee hives, and as 

 many of the soldiers as ate of the honeycomb became senseless and were seized 

 with vomiting and diarrhea, and not one of them could stand erect. Those wh« 

 had swallowed but little looked very like drunken men; those who ate much weiv 

 like mad men, and some lay as if they were dying. And thus they lay in Buclfc 

 numbers as on a field of battle after a defeat, and yet no one was found to barft 

 died. All recovered their senses about the same hour on the following day. And 

 on the third or fourth day thereafter they rose up as if they had sufferred from tb« 

 drinking of poison." 



This description is mildly suggestive of the possibility that a band of hungry 

 soldiers might, by free access to a supply of ordinarily good honey, eat of it widi 

 such intemperance as to produce effects which the facile pen of the great Grecian 

 historian has described as the results of toxic action, just as sometimes in eagerneeB 

 to serve a good cause the unsuspecting victim may consume such quantities of thfr 

 harmless circus lemonade as may make him a subject for a newspaper article and 

 an undertaker. 



Acick. — Honey is always slightly acid. This acidity is due to oreanic com- 

 pounds derived from plants and to an acid furnished by the bee itself. The ^iod 

 and quantity of these acids have not been accurately studied. The conversion o£ 

 the cane sugar into glucose is due to the presence of these acids. The fact that thi» 

 change goes on more rapidly in the organism of the bee than in the honey after it 

 has been deposited is presumptive evidence of the activity of an acid in the bee» 

 On the other hand, certain species of pine and some other plants are said to fur- 

 nish formic acid, and therefore the detection of this acid in honey would not 1» 

 positive evidence that it was derived from the bee. The Avhole subject of honey 

 acids is an inviting field for chemical study. The quantity of acid estimated a» 

 formic in honeys is given in the following table. 



PRESERVING POWER OF FORMIC ACID. 



It is asserted by a late German writer, quoted in the Deutsch Amerikanigehe 

 Apotheker Zeitung, 5, 21-664, that the formic acid which honey contains tends to- 

 preserve it from fermentation. 



Honey syrup, on the other hand, from which the greater part of the formic acid 

 has been washed out, or expelled by heat, does not keep so well as the noraai 

 product. 



