8o2 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CTJLTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



through the winter and work out their six 

 weeks of active scratching around, next spring. 

 In otiier words, they entered the semi-dormant 

 state, in which time counts nothing, or next to 

 nothing on the calendar of bee-life. This is 

 just what ivhole eohmiex do in many localities 

 where honey totally ceases early in the season. 

 The only peculiarity in this case was. that half 

 the colony were eagerly at work, while the oth- 

 er half didn't care wliether school kept or not. 

 But the work went on just as in -February the 

 work of. say, one-tenth of the colony goes on 

 while the others are idle. The workers actual- 

 ly engaged in constant labor wore their lives 

 out. and died in regulation time. Then, when 

 there was pressing need of more laborers, some 

 of the semi-dormant ones, like good patriotic 

 citizens, volunteed to help. Thus they kept on 

 doing as need required, till all had passed back 

 again into the active state. So the colony 

 built comb for 90 days; but no individual bee 

 secreted wax for so much as half that time. 

 Richards. O., Oct. 9. E. E. Hasty. 



HEALTH VERSUS DRUGS. 



SOMETHING ON THE OTHER SIDE. 



A. I. Boot;- Having read with much interest 

 in the October 1st issue of Gleanings of your 

 painful experience while sick, I am moved to 

 write this letter with a view, if possible, of pre- 

 venting much suffering that undoubtedly 

 would follow a too hasty adoption, by numer- 

 ous readers, of certain views expressed in your 

 well-meaning sermon. As you declare your- 

 self as no longer belonging to that class of peo- 

 ple who " know it all," you doubtless will be 

 open to new truths presented by the other side 

 of the question, and by one who in their ex- 

 pression has only the welfare of humanity at 

 heart. May I therefore say a few words in op- 

 position to the use of drugs ? 



Having had a severe attack of typhoid fever 

 some years ago, and having been attended by 

 an allopathic physician, I am able to appreciate 

 most of the queer sensations you so graphically 

 describe in writing of your sickness, and, to 

 some extent, to speak advisedly on the subject 

 of drugs and their effects. It is not my inten- 

 tion to criticise or compare the various schools 

 of medicine, but, if possible, to save you and 

 others much unnecessary suffering. This I 

 shall endeavor to do by turning your attention 

 toward the natural means which Nature has 

 provided to keep us in good health, and. when 

 sick, to cure us; in other words, to trust Nature 

 more and drugs, eic, less. 



Like yourself, when sick I came, after a time, 

 to have implicit confidence in the healing pow- 

 <^r of the doctor and his army of drugs, and 

 never a suspicion crossed my mind but that it 

 was due entirely to them that I was able, after 

 some two months' confinement to my bed, to 

 get up — a mere shadow of my former self, 

 however. Since that time I have made all 

 matters pertaining to health a special study, 

 from all points of view, with the result that my 

 confidence in doctors and drugs has been dis- 

 pelled as completely as I have come to recog- 

 nize the fact that health is obtainable only by 

 obedience to Nature's laws. The doctor may 

 give us some temporary reli<if, it is true, by 

 suppressing some symptom, which, after all, is 

 but the cry of Nature warning us that we are 

 doing or have done wrong, and which is the 

 evidence that she is endeavoring to remedy the 

 evil for us. Medicine, however, as now prac- 

 ticed generally, is unable to restore health or 

 cure disease. This is a fact admitted by nu- 

 merous leading lights of the profession who have 



the candor to speak the truth. By the use of 

 poisons. Nature's efforts can be diverted from 

 her own wise work of expelling disease, in or- 

 der that she may cope with the new enemy 

 thrust in upon her. This is the effect that is 

 called or mistaken for cure: but our wise moth- 

 er as surely returns to the completion of her 

 unfinished work, perhaps in another manner, 

 and it is well to remember that each lime she 

 is thwarted her work becomes more difificult. 

 Fevers are not cured by quinine; Nature's 

 sweet restorer can not be replaced by recourse 

 to bromide of potassium, chloral, or any other 

 poisonous drug. A great many diseases are 

 self-limited, and run. their natural course, 

 whether interfered with by the doctor or not; 

 and it is in the ineffectual attempts in such 

 cases to " break up " the fever that so many 

 lives are sacrificed. If the patient recovers it 

 is in spite of the doctor and drugs, not because 

 of their interference. The constitution of the 

 patient was strong enough to fight both the 

 disease and the drugs; but in the majority of 

 instances the doctor gets the thanks, not Na- 

 ture, as should be the case. I now come to the 

 principal point which induced me to write this 

 letter. 



You refer to the bromide of potassium as a 

 " harmless medicine."' In consequence of this, 

 and the soothing effect it produced upon you in 

 allaying the effects of the quinine, many of 

 your readers, ignorant of any further particu- 

 lars of the drug, will be tempted to try its use. 

 To such I would say, " Be careful!" With all 

 due respect to you, Mr. Root, for I recognize the 

 fact that you have only the welfare of your 

 readers and humanity in general at heart, bro- 

 mide of potassium is not a harmless medicine 

 hut a. (leddly drug, the continued use of which 

 ruins the mind and will destroy the strongest 

 constitution. The use of the drug once begun, 

 it becomes harder and harder to discontinue it, 

 and its victim becomes a physical wreck. That 

 there are harmless and very beneficial medi- 

 cines I do not deny; but there are none such in 

 the mineral poisons, by the use of which we but 

 defile the temple of our body and thwart and 

 hinder Nature. ''A little knowledge is a dan- 

 gerous thing," and may prove so to many of 

 your readers in this instance, therefore I would 

 say again to those who might be in need of the 

 admonition, " Be careful!" 



The evil effects of drugs administered by doc- 

 tors is little understood by the public, and their 

 indiscriminate use in self-doctoring is even less 

 appreciated. The family physician may be a 

 most worthy and conscientious man, actuated 

 only by the best of motives in the administer- 

 ing of his drugs; but we must be careful before 

 placing confidence in an individual or a body 

 who, it seems, only too often loses confidence 

 in himself and the art he practices. Medicine 

 as now practiced by the regular schools is whol- 

 ly experimental, and each patient is the object 

 for the experiments. Therefore, without fur- 

 ther evidence than this, would it not be better 

 to turn to such simple, natural, and most effica- 

 cious means within the understanding of all, 

 which Nature has so kindly provided for the 

 maintenance of our physical health and for the 

 cure of our diseases? By these I refer to the 

 proper and intelligent uses of that great purifi- 

 er watei-, pure and correct diet, and right and 

 temperate habits of living; To gain a knowl- 

 edge of all these means will require some study, 

 I will admit. We may even throw ourselves 

 open to the accusation of being *' cranks;" but 

 the end will more than justify the means, as I 

 can state from experience. It should be the 

 effort of all, and especially parents, to gain at 

 least some insight into the laws that govern 

 our being, and by then- obedience to maintain 



