770 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



shoes, became thoroughly wet. Having i*e- 

 moved my veil and gloves, I went into the 

 house and sat down, still perspiring. My 

 wdfe remarked that I looked "awful." Ex- 

 amination by means of a mirror proved her 

 statement correct. My face was swollen al- 

 most to purple. However, I felt fairly 

 well and therefore had no fears. 



ISTow, there Avas seme trifling repair work 

 that my wife had asked me to do, and I 

 needed a small piece of lumber for it. As 

 I continued to feel quite well, I now soon 

 went to the barn and by means of a ladder 

 climbed to the second floor, about seven 

 feet from the gTound, to get that board. 

 But "when I was up I noticed that some- 

 thing was quite seriously wrong with me. 

 My heart now fluttered and pumped quite 

 riolently, and then again it seemed to cease 

 action altogether. I feared that I would 

 faint and fall down. Evidently the poison, 

 together with the exertion of climbing the 

 ladder, though oi'dinarily but trifling, was 

 getting too much for my heart, so I went 

 down again. I am glad that I did, for as 

 soon as I reached the lower floor every- 

 thing vanished from my sight. I thought I 

 would faint ; but although I felt weak and 

 rather dizzy, I did not. It was only the 

 power of sight that left me. My eyes had 

 given out completely — so much so, in fact, 

 that I could not tee a thing. It seemed as 

 if I had suddenly been transported into the 

 darkness of midnight. The action of my 

 heart grew weaker and weaker and was at 

 times not at all perceptible. In a few mo- 

 ments, however, my sight began to return, 

 and, though I could as yet see merely the 

 dimmest of outlines of various objects, I 

 started to walk to the house. Immediately, 

 however, my sight again failed entirely, and 

 I groped the rest of the way to the house, 

 a distance of about 75 feet. As I neared the 

 door I could again see just a little, though 



not for long. And thus, for nearly a half 

 hour, my condition continued, fluctuating 

 now to total blindness, and again, after a 

 few moments, to dim and indistinct sight. 

 My limbs, too, became limp and weak, and 

 the action of my heart continued very ir- 

 regular and extremely faint. Conscious- 

 ness and reason, however, at all times re- 

 mained, though at times greatly depressed. 



My wife says that I now looked ghastly 

 and was deathly pale. Quite naturally she 

 was alarmed. She ran to a neighbor's and 

 asked him to come over. With his assistance 

 I walked outside into the fresh air, thinking 

 that this would stimulate me. It is re- 

 markable that I suddenly felt an urgent ne- 

 cessity of attending to a common physical 

 want. Still more remarkable, after a free 

 and thorough movement of the bowels, my 

 ej^esight suddenly became fully normal, and 

 the action of my heart nearly so. The pe- 

 riod of danger was past. 



Pertaining to the further effects of the 

 poison a few things yet remain to be told. 

 First, I at no time had any direct pains 

 that were worthy of being called suc'h. 

 Then, though in my first two years of bee- 

 keeping every sting that I had received had 

 caused violent and thick swellings, only 

 very slight swellings resulted now, and 

 these only on top of the head, at the neck, 

 wrists, and ankles. But a very odd cir- 

 cumstance is this, that on the following 

 day I felt as though I had done a very hard 

 day's work of physical labor the day before, 

 for the muscles of my whole body were 

 very sore. This one thing I cannot ac- 

 count for — I am glad to say that on the 

 third day I felt in every respect normal, 

 and have been so ever since. When I went 

 at my bees again, I was so thoroughly pro- 

 tected, let me assure you, that history did 

 not repeat. For that matter, I hope it 

 never will. 



A NEW BEEKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



BY OTTO HOLLANDER 



Translated from the " Gaceta Apicola de Espana" of January, 1914. 



A new beekeepers' association has just 

 been formed in Porto Rico, where bee- 

 keeping is spreading veiy rapidly, known 

 as "The Puerto Rico Beekeepers' Associa- 

 tion," Its aim and object are outlined in 

 the constitution and by-laws, which we are 

 publishing in full, in order that our bee- 

 keepers may get an idea of some of the 

 problems that confront us and of the man- 

 ner in which these ai'e solved in other coun- 

 tries. 



THE PUERTO RICO BEEKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 



First — The object of the Society shall 

 be: 



1. To promote and foster beekeeping 

 with all of the means at its disposal. 



2. To regulate the location of apiaries 

 and endeavor to have laws enacted that will 

 fix the distances between apiaries. 



3. To seek to reduce the cost of trans- 

 portation, both on land and sea. 



