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91.00 a Venr-Sajnp7e Copy Pree, 



37tliYear. 



CHICAGO, ILL., JUNE 17, 1897. 



Ko. 24. 



The Sugar Question — Bee-Food and Glands. 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



I have been requested to reply to the followine, which 

 was sent to the editor of the Aoierican B^e Journal : 



Mr. Editor : — Prof. Cook tells us on page 179: "Thus 

 the symbol of water is Hj; O, and of sugar Cio Hio 0.->. In both 

 these cases we see that there is just twice as many atoms of 

 oxygen as there are of hydrogen." I'm not much acquainted 

 with chemistry, but it looks as if those figures showed more 

 hydrogen than oxygen, for I suppose H stands for hydrogen. 

 How is it? And is there a chemical formula that makes him 

 say "there is twice as many" where common folks would say 

 "there nee twice as many ?" Aside from these things there 

 is much I can understand in the article, and Prof. Cook is 

 doing good service to Instruct us in such matters. 



Non-Chemical. 



It is unfortunate that Chicago and Californiaare so widely 

 separated, as this makes it impossible for me to see the proof 

 of my articles, else the above errors would not have occurred. 

 1 do not wonder that " Non-Cheraical" is puzzled over the 

 above. I was chagrined as I read the article, and have taken 

 this first opportunity to correct the errors. 



The formula for glucose is Co Hi3 0«. This is the true 

 formula for the grape-sugar of commerce, the sugar of diges- 

 tion, liver-sugar, and the honey-sugars. The formula for 

 starch Is Ch Hio O.i, and the same is true of glycogen or liver 

 starch or animal starch as it is called. It will be seen that all 

 of these substances contain hydrogen and oxygen in the same 

 proportion that they are found in water, that is, two equiva- 

 lents of hydrogen to one of oxygen. It is supposed that starch 

 and glycogen are changed to sugar, the first, in digestion, the 

 second, in the liver, by the adding of one equivalent of water. 



There is no chemical formula that should make any one 

 say there is twice as many. That is a pure case of false syn- 

 tax that it seems will once in awhile get into the best of 

 papers. 



OTHER BEE- food. 



As every bee-keeper knows, bees not only require honey, 

 or the sugars for food, but are equally dependent upon pollen. 

 This forms the nitrogenous food of bees, and is without doubt 

 required by all the bees, young as well as old, and all of the 

 old bees, drones, workers and queens. It is probable that 

 the drones and queens need not a little of this nitrogenous or 

 albuminous food. The method of preparing this has been a 

 matter of no little dispute. The pollen which is secured by 

 the bees in the field Is very different from the rich, albumin- 

 ous food which we find in the cells with the larval bees, and 

 in such large quantities in the queen-cell with the developing 

 larval queen. It seems certain that the bees digest the pollen 

 and form the rich food which is fed, certainly to all larvio. 



and without any doubt to the queens and drones as well. It 

 seem also evident that the lower head-glands secrete the fer- 

 ment which affects this digestion of pollen. 



True, Mr. Cheshire says in his book, that these lower 

 head-glands secrete the very substance which is fed to the 

 brood. I think I have proved that this is not the case. I 

 think that the secretion from these lower head-glands mixes 

 with the pollen, and both go together to the true stomach 

 where the pollen is digested or changed into the royal jelly 

 and other nitrogenous food preparing it for the bees. I fed 

 bees honey which was mixtwith pulverized charcoal, and with 

 the microscope found this in the royal jelly. Thus, it would 

 be seen certain that the bees regurgitated the food which is 

 fed to the larvK. It would be impossible for this charcoal to 

 pass through into the body cavity so as to mis with the blood, 

 as charcoal is non-osmotic, and so cannot be absorbed, and 

 also equally impossible for it to be taken out by the lower 

 head-glauds, which must certainly be the case if these lower 

 head-glands prepare directly this nitrogenous food. 



It would seem that ihe glands could hardly secrete all of 

 the nitrogenous food, though it would seem possible that they 

 might secrete enough ferment to digest the pollen and fit it to 

 nourish the larvas and also the queen and drone. The fact as 

 stated by Cheshire, that only the young workers have these 

 lower head-glands strongly developt, makes it seem more than 

 probable that only the younger bees prepare or digest this 

 nitrogenous food, and thus they supply this food not only to 

 the larval bees, but also to the drones, queen, and older 

 workers. 



OTHER GLANDS IN BEES. 



Besides the lower head-glands there are the large upper 

 head-glands, and also large glands in the thorax. These all 

 connect with a tube which empties at the base of the tongue 

 just where the nectar enters. It seems very evident that the 

 secretion from these glands mixes with the nectar as it is 

 taken into the honey-stomach. This is the ferment which 

 changes nectar to honey, and makes honey such an admirable 

 food. We can readily understand why these glands are so 

 large. I once fed a colony of bees 19 pounds of sugar syrup. 

 This all had to be transformed, and was in one night. We 

 also know that colonies of bees will often gather under the 

 most favorable circumstances a very large amount of nectar 

 in a single day. It must take a large amount of this digestive 

 ferment to perform transformation in such an extensive way, 

 and thus these glands in the upper head and thorax are so 

 largely developt. These matters are more fully described in 

 my "Manual of the Apiary," and also in Cheshire's book. 



There is also some fat in the pollens, or perhaps it would 

 be more accurate to say oil. The oils and fats are the same, 

 tho we usually speak of fat as the material formed in animals, 

 and oil the like material formed by plants. I say they are 

 the same. They differ somewhat, but undoubtedly form the 

 same food element. We do not know what it is that digests 

 the fat or oil of the pollen. We do know that it is a secretion 

 from the pancreas that digests the fats and oils in our diges- 

 tive economy. It is probable that in the lower head-glands 

 there is also a ferment that does the same work for the bees. 

 We also know that there is in the pancreatic secretion in our 

 own bodies a substance which can and does digest the albumi- 

 noid of our food in case It is not done in the stomach by aid of 

 the gastric juice. 



Thus we see that in case both the oils and albuminoid of 

 pollen is digested by the secretion of the lower head-glands, 

 the analogy is very close to our own digestion, and we might 



