19(14 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



741 



J. Langer, of Prague, Bohemia. At first I 

 thought I would not translate it; but the 

 communication from J^Ir. Rich, in this is- 

 sue, caused me to change my mind. Then 

 I could not find the journal; but, fortunate- 

 ly, I found a translation of it in IJ Aheille 

 (The Bee), one of the best French bee- 

 journals published, although it does not 

 come from France. As the matter will not 

 suffer by being run through a French col- 

 ander I give it here as I find it. Each 

 reader can draw his own conclusion as well 

 as his own stings after he has received 

 them; but it seems to be certain that the 

 time has passed by when the use of stings 

 for rheumatism can be regarded as entirely 

 a fad or a piece of superstition. 



The belief that the stiug of the bee may exercise a 

 salutary influence on rheumatic pains is very widely 

 spread among bee-keepers, and dates back from early 

 times. Berlepsch mentions very briefly this fact in 

 his manual, and declares that it is very easy to believe 

 and easy to explain. 



Since mj' researches on the poison of bees were 

 made known, a number of bee-keepers and doctors 

 have questioned me concerning my opinion as to the 

 influence of stings in rheumatism. Having made no 

 personal experiments on this subject I have been in 

 the habit of replying that, very likely, the matter con- 

 tained in bee-poison operates on the patient like ap- 

 plications of blisters made by cantharides. 



Dr. Terc, a physician at ^Marburg, made a number 

 ot personal applications in this way. As early as 1888 

 he had applied about 39,000 stings of bees to 173 per- 

 sons, and he made note of the remarkable coinci- 

 dences between the application of the remedy and the 

 relief of rheumatism. In 1903 he presented the re- 

 sult of some new observations to the Royal and Im- 

 perial Society at Vienna. As his report is not yet 

 printed, the author has confided to me his manuscript. 

 It is a summing-up of the cases already noted — experi- 

 ments made on more than 500 persons. Being a bee- 

 keeper and a doctor, I believe it is my duty to give 

 the result of this interesting work to the bee keeping 

 world. 



The results obtained by this doctor cause him to 

 speak with enthusiasm on the use of bee-stings as a 

 cure for rheumatism. He is persuaded that all artic- 

 ulatory rheumatism, chronic or not, is curable by the 

 poison of the bee; and the disease is healed more rap- 

 idly if the cure is applied early. It should be noted 

 that each case presents characteristics peculiar to it- 

 self. The doctor is under the impression that these 

 stings have also a very salutary influence in the cure of 

 acute rheumatism. He was impressed by the fact that 

 none of the 30 patients attacked by that kind of rheu- 

 matism was afflicted with heart trouble. Stings have 

 even been efficacious in cases of muscular rheumatism 

 and facial neuralgia. The effect of the poison is local 

 or general. The latter renders the sufferer immune, 

 and thus leads to a cure It is slower than other reme- 

 dies — for example, salicylic acid, but it surpasses them 

 in its effect. The doctor and the patient should have 

 patience and confidence. This remedy should be kept 

 from children and old people, those who show a 

 complication of troubles such as a lack of blood, tuber- 

 culosis, inflammation of the kindeys, or fever. How- 

 ever, in the case of the latter as soon as the fever has 

 disappeared one may apply the cure in question to 

 the patient. Dr. Terc has seen no danger except in a 

 case of weakness of the heart; and he is disposed to 

 believe that serious troubles with the circulatory ap- 

 paratus are present when several applications of 

 stings produce general troubles. When from time to 

 time we read of the death of a man, occasioned by a 

 single sting, we may rest assured that his days and 

 perhaps his hours were numbered, and that he would 

 have succumbed soon without any accident. 



The method of application is very simple. The bee 

 is seized between the thumb and first finger. It is 

 made to sting on the spot chosen, and is killed by 

 squeezing it. The sting remains in the wound, or at 

 least is not removed until the automatic movements 

 of that organ have entirely ceased. Dr. Terc begins 

 his cure by applying one or sometimes three .stings, 

 applied at the extremities or on the back. According 

 to the reactions produced he increases the number 

 more or less. He has applied as many as 150 in a day; 



but in general he advises that not more than 100 be 

 used. The treatment extends through ore, two, or 

 even three years. 



After beginning, he causes the patient to make care- 

 ful observations for three days, after which he can 

 with certainty predict the cure of the patient, other- 

 wise he dissuades him from continuing further. The 

 pain of the cure is woeful and progressive, and it 

 needs a certain degree of heroism to go to the end. 

 On this account it will be readily understood that the 

 methods used by Dr. Terc become popular very slow- 

 ly; nevertheless they never disappoint one who per- 

 severes in them. It is self-evident that the sting cure 

 does not do away with the changing operations in the 

 body of the patient, such as atrophy and the degenera- 

 tion of tissue. 



Perhaps we shall be able some day to make a serum 

 from animals rendered immune to the stings of bees; 

 then it will be possible to apply that remedy in a way 

 less painful to the human body. 



"I hail with pleasure," says Dr. Terc, "every im- 

 provement in the method I have indicated. As for 

 me. I am fully resolved on the task I imposed on my- 

 self 23 years ago." 



SOURED HONEY. 



"Say, Doolittle, I am in a 'peck of half- 

 bushels' this morning, as the old lady 

 said." 



"What is the trouble to-day, Brown?" 



" You know I had my honey all piled up 

 nicely in the parlor of the house. Wife took 

 up the carpet last spring on account of the 

 carpet-bugs getting into the carpet, and she 

 told me I could put our section honey in that 

 room this year to save lugging it upstairs. 

 I thought this would be quite a scheme, and 

 last night I found, after I had taken off two 

 tiers of the sections in crating the honey 

 yesterday that the sections further in the 

 pile had a watery appearance, while those 

 near the floor at the bottom smelled quite 

 sour; and some I had taken off before all the 

 cells were sealed had actually run out on the 

 floor, and was so sour and thin that I was 

 almost scared. Can you help me any?" 



"In the first place, sections having many 

 unsealed cells should have been allowed to 

 stay on the hive till all the cells were 

 sealed; for unsealed honey should not be 

 put on the market to the injury of the sale 

 of good honey. Where honey is left on the 

 hive till fully ripened and sealed over, it is 

 not as liable to sour as that which is un- 

 sealed is." 



"I thought possibly this was a cause of 

 part of my trouble, and you can rest as- 

 sured I shall never do it again." 



"I hope not. But there is a possibility 

 that there might have been some other trou- 

 ble with the honey, for I have noticed that 

 certain kinds of honey, like apple-bloom 

 and dandelion, will not ripen up in the 

 same room in which clover and basswood 

 honey will do fairly well. Then in certain 

 seasons the bees will seal up honey ver_y 



