iSivj 



GLEANINCJS IN HEE CULTURE. 



833 



I'uiiH' to \\\o very tip of my toiiunc; but. tliaiik 

 (toii. 1 w as able to i-liol^c it down." 



1 joiiu'il tlH> l'olliuri> ('oiiKn'jratioiial Church 

 in the spriuji of 1S:?1. and. after graduation, en- 

 tered tli(> Thooloffii-al Seminary of Yale College. 

 My fatiier's business had now become so much 

 embarrassed that li<' could fiive me no further 

 assistance. 1 knew how nuiiiy applicants the 

 American I']ducati(Mi .S()ciety had from candi- 

 dates for tlie ministry wlio were just bcfiinninjj 

 to get a liberal education, and 1 felt strongly 

 persuaded that if. with a college course. I had 

 not sulMcient energy to complet(> my th(>ologi- 

 cal studies from my own earnings, j gave but 

 poor evidence of having any call to preach the 

 gospel. I th(M-eforc took classes in some of the 

 schools for young hulii's in New Haven while I 

 pursued my theological studi(>s. Aftt>rward I 

 taught in a school opposite West Point, and. in 

 thi' fall of is:u, became a tutor of mathematics 

 to the freshman cla-s in Vale College. 



While in the tutorship I had sotne very pleas- 

 ant experiences. ar.d never suffered, like many 

 of my predecessors and successors, by being 

 smoked out of my room or having my windows 

 broken, etc. I attribute my escape "from these 

 and other annoyances to a somewhat natural 

 courtesy of manner, but very largely to the 

 strong personal interest which I took in my 

 students. If I found any of them getting be- 

 hindhand in their studies. I was always ready 

 to offer them private instruction, without any 

 charge. All such kindness was fully recipro- 

 cated, as the following incidents will show: 



In winter, prayers and recitations were before 

 sunrise. I had for some time been feeling quite 

 unwell, and one morning I overslept myself. 

 Roused by a knocking at my door. I opened my 

 eyes and realized at once that 1 was late. I 

 dressed as fast as 1 could, and on opening my 

 door I found a deputation, who politely inform- 

 ed me that my class was waiting for me, as 

 they knew that my state of health had proba- 

 bly caused me to sleep over. By immemorial 

 custom, for the first time, I believe, broken 

 over, when a tutor failed to be on hand his 

 class waited about live minutes, when, if he did 

 not appear, they rushed out of the room, filling 

 the adjoining halls with yells of exultation 

 which proclaimed their tutor's delinquency to 

 all in reach of their voices. It seems that, after 

 waiting for me the usual time, just as they were 

 about to disperse, a student whom I had be- 

 friended plead with them to hold on for a mo- 

 ment, reminding them of my kindness and 

 courtesy, and proposed that a deputation be 

 chosen to inform me that they were still in the 

 recitation-room. 



A few weeks later the same experience from 

 a similar cause befell me, and again a deputa- 

 tion from the class \\ aited upon me. If the first 

 occurrence was a suliject of more than common 

 talk among instructors and students, the second 

 one attracted much more notice. After I reach- 

 ed my class I thanked tliem with deep emotion 

 for their kind consiijeration, but assured them 

 that, if I made ancither sleep-over. I believed 

 they would be jusMfied in following the old 

 custom. L. L. Langstrotii. 



(nntinucO. 



STIGAE-FED HONEY. 



WHAT THE DADANTS THINK OF IT. 



What is honey? T'rof. Cook answers: " Honey 

 is digested nectar. Every one understands that 

 honey Is the liquid product of bees, which they 

 store in the cells of their combs. . . . That 

 honey is digested nectar is j ust as true, although 

 not as evident to the unlearned. . . . Diges- 

 tion is simply changing our food so that It can 



be absorbed. . . . Many substances, like al- 

 bumen and cane sugar. . . . must be chang- 

 ed -- digested — before absorption can take 

 place." (Something in defense of sugar honey), 

 Bcc-kecpos' Review, page 2(W. 



According to the above quotation, all the 

 savants who do not accept this assertion of 

 Prof. Cook, that honey is digested nectar, even 

 tliv best (lutluiiitics in dicniistry, \n Europe as 

 well as in America, are unlearned. To my 

 knowledge. Prof. Cook can boast of being the 

 (irst who w i-ote that the inure or less (■(nnplete 

 change of food by its mixture with the; gastric 

 juice is digestion, for the simph; fact is against 

 such a theory. As soon as some cooked starch 

 is introduced into our mouth and masticated, 

 our saliva mixes with it. Then this starch, 

 before going down into our stomach, is more or 

 less transformed into glucose by the chemical 

 action of our saliva.* It is the same with the 

 nectar gathered by bees, which is more or less 

 transformed in their honey-sac, by the saliva 

 or juice of their glands, before going into their 

 true stomach. 



Of course, as no savant will say that the 

 starch is digested before going into the stom- 

 ach, I can not see how it can be admitted that 

 the nectar is digested before going into the true 

 stomach of bees. I say trne stomach, for " the 

 honey-sac acts as a temporary reservoir for the 

 collected nectar" (Cowan). Furthermore, ac- 

 cording to the well-known English chemist, 

 Bloxam, digestion is the change of the food 

 into chyme by the gastric juice, the bile, the 

 pancreatic juice, the intestinal fluids, and the 

 separation and absorption of the chyle contain- 

 ed in the chyme. 



Milne Edwards, of Paris, wrote that digestion 

 begins by the mastication of the food and ends 

 by the absorption of the chyle and the defeca- 

 tion. 



I could quote scores of savants who agree 

 with the chemists just named, and I challenge 

 Prof. Cook to find any one of them teaching 

 that digestion consists only in the mixture of 

 the food with the gastric juice and its more or 

 less complete transformation. But this criti- 

 cism is not the main purpose of my article. 



Prof. Cook writes: "If honey produced by 

 feeding bees with cane sugar is entirely whole- 

 some, of which there can be no doubt; . . . 

 if our best chemists class it with the best honey 

 from choicest plants, does it not stand to reason 

 that it can be. may be, and. we say, ought to be, 

 a product with no tarnished fame or reputa- 

 tion ? . . . Let tis not cry knavery or fraud, 

 but candidly investigate the matter; and if 

 this course does offer a right and justifiable 

 means of increasing our profits, let us adopt it" 

 (Review). 



The main argument of Prof. Cook is, that 

 snch product is wholesome, and that the chem- 

 ists class it with the best honey from choice 

 plants. Let us suppose that 1 am so dextrous 

 in counterfeiting greenbacks that all the most 

 learned chemists and all of the best engravers 

 pronounce my papers as true, would it follow 

 that I am right and honest in making and put- 

 ting them in circulation ? It would rob nobody, 

 since every one of my greenbacks would be 

 accepted as the ones issued by the government. 

 No doubt 1 would rob the nation of their value; 

 but the man who would sell sugar syrup as 

 honey would not only get money on false pre- 

 tense, but would make, alsp, a disloyal competi- 

 tion with the honest bee-keeper. He would 

 not be more honest than a money-counterfeiter, 

 and he would ruin our business by destroying 

 the confidence of our customers. So Mr. Cook 

 would have acted wisely if, instead of boasting, 



*Dlctionnaire de Medecine de Littre et Robin. 



