1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



919 



Albany is rather pleasantly situated, and easy 

 of access. The convention will be held in Ag- 

 ricultural Hall, in a largr and commodious room. 

 Suspended fiom the ceiling above is tht; mam- 

 moth skeleton of a whale, and on all .'•ides are 

 the implements of agricultui-e. 



The heaifquai-ters will be at the Globe Hotel, 

 a two-dollar temperance house. Mr. Thomas 



SECRETARY DADANT. 



Pierce, president of the Albany County Bee- 

 keepers' Association, will be at the hotel to 

 give all the information that may be desired in 

 refei'ence to cheaper or other accommodations 

 for bee-keepers who attend. That you may be 

 able to recognize him we 

 would remark that he is 

 over six feet tall, perhaps 

 sixty years old, and genial 

 and affable. We submit 

 his picture herewith. 

 When you see this man 

 just say, "How do you do, 

 Mr. Pierce?" He will give 

 you all the information 

 you may desire. 

 Come to the convention 

 TwoMA^ PTFKfF '' ^^^ possibly cau, and 



THOMA.S PIERCE. j^^.j^^^ g^,^,^g ^j^^ ^^^^ ^^^_ 



man who has toiled along with you in life's 

 journey. If vou haven't any "better half." 

 bring along the one that is to be. We always 

 have better conventions when there is a large 

 attendance of ladies. 



SOME WISE AND HELPFUL WORDS IN RE- 

 GARD TO THE FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 



NATURE AND ART. 



Mr. Root:— I was glad to see you stand by 

 the family physician in your footnotes to the 

 letter of " Droit et Avant," in Nov. 1st journal, 

 though the caution of the latter against the use 



of sleep- producing drugs is, I dare say, well 

 timed. 



I have heard the " medicos " maligned by 

 people— I make no reference hei'e to yotir cor- 

 respondent above— who, after all, had they re- 

 flected a little, would surely have found that, 

 in the past, they had reason to be exceedingly 

 thankful that the medical profession existed, 

 and that some one skilled in the healing art 

 had been at hand with the advice which was 

 invaluable when the life of a wife or child or 

 other dear one hung in the balance. How little 

 thought was there then of belittling the profes- 

 sion of medicine! It reminds me of those who 

 set the pleadings of the Great Physician at 

 naught till something serious threatens their 

 existence, and then they are willing, /or the 

 time heiiuj, to lend an ear to him. 



I know that perfection has not been attained 

 in this line; that the doctors seem to be to blame 

 for not knowing some things we wish they did 

 know, and that there is, perhaps, something in 

 the remark, that " the reason why medicine has 

 advanced so slowly is because physicians have 

 studied the writings of their predecessors in- 

 stead of nature." This kind of misfortune is 

 not confined to that profession; but the dispo- 

 sition giving rise to it seems to belong to nature 

 —human nature. Take, for example, that oth- 

 er very prominent line of cure, " the cure of the 

 soul." See how, by tenaciously clinging to the 

 writings of their denominational predecessors, 

 men, even men of great learning and ability, 

 fail to break away from the old sectarian bonds 

 assumed in childhood, to work after the more 

 consistent methods of simple primitive Christi- 

 anity. I speak as a simple Christian, disciple 

 of the Lord Jesus, or such other Scriptural 

 name as you care to apply. Yet. what sensible 

 man will'say that the man who has for years 

 made a specialty of the study of disease and the 

 means of cure is not to be trusted more than 

 one's own gradually collected and possibly very 

 meager ideas of nature's laws for the mainte- 

 nance of health or cure of sickness? Or, on the 

 other hand, what wise man will say that he 

 who has studied for the pastorate, in whatever 

 denomination it may be, will fail to be as effi- 

 cient a comforter and help, and applierof the 

 consolations of Scripture, in the hour of be- 

 reavement or distress, as the ordinary layman? 



To take another phase of the question: Na- 

 ture, like appetite, is a very uncertain guide 

 under the circumstances in which civilized — 

 yes, and even uncivilized— human beings live; 

 as witness the cruelties and superstitious ex- 

 cesses of the latter, their peculiar " medicine- 

 men, "etc.; and of the former, their departure 

 from nature, and by following a higher law, 

 how much it has elevated and advanced them 

 in the scale of humanity! 



I have a little girl just recovering from ty- 

 phoid fever. Now. what did nature do for her? 

 Insisted on sleep, sleep, sleep, all the time. So 

 far, good. But what of nourishment to supply 

 the wasting system? No appetite, no desire 

 for food of any kind, and exhaustion going on 

 apace, till liquid nourishment had to be forced 

 upon her in spite of the littles one's strongest 

 protests and evasions, in order that nature's 

 sleep might be prevented from verging into the 

 sleep of death. Again, after the fever had 

 abated and recovery commenced, nature call- 

 ed for food as eagerly as she formerly protested 

 against it, when, to gratify this natural appe- 

 tite with a morsel of solid food would almost 

 certainly have resulted in death from puncture 

 or hemorrhage of the bowels. 



Suppose I am afflicted with eczema, or some 

 such skin disease; what does nature say about 

 it? Absolutely nothing, further than that you 

 can see she has been sinned against some way 



