594 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



but not a great deal. The last swarm, T sold. My 

 bees are mostly the bi^ brown bee; some hybrid, 

 some Italians. You must excu«e mistakes, for my 

 little blue-eyed grirl bothers me. D. Shangle. 



Judd's Corners, Shiawassee Co., Mich. 



Thank God you have a little '• Blue Eyes" 

 to bother you, friend S. ; and thank him, 

 too, that your elforts with the l)ees have 

 eventually turned out so well. If you will 

 excuse the liberty, I am afraid you are in- 

 clined to be a little careless sometimes ; but 

 with what you have accomplished, you now 

 knov/ what bees can do, and I think, too, 

 that you see there is little probability that 

 your "otherwork is more importantthan your 

 work with the bees. ^Vill it not be just as 

 well to say next year, that you had no time 

 to attend to the other work^ instead of say- 

 ing that you did not have time to attend to 

 the bees V 



MRS. HTCINDA IIAKRISON ON BCE' 

 STINGS AS A REltlEDIAIi AGENT. 



ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT OTHER THINGS FOR " RHEU- 

 MATICS," ETC. 



MIR. EDTTOR:-We have been watching with in- 

 terest the discussions that have been in 



' Gleanings in reference to the sting of the 



bee as a panacea for rheumatism. We know what 

 rheumatism is. The Turks call it " wind in the 

 bones;" but our relations have been so intimate that 

 we have eaten salt together, and when wo yrished to 

 dissolve the intimacy, it was like the fabled shirt, 

 that, when once it was put on, could not be removed. 

 And we have seen the spectacle of a doctor visiting 

 rheumatic patients, who was a sufferer with it him- 

 self, to the extent that he could not draw the rib- 

 bons over his own horse. " Physician, cure thyself " 

 first, would have been more in keeping with good 

 common sense. During two seasons, in February 

 and March, we had rheumatism to the extent that 

 we were not able to dress our feet ; we were accus- 

 tomed to say to the little girl who did it for us, "You 

 will not have to do it very long, for as soon as the 

 weather is warm, and we work with the bees, and 

 get stung, we can put them on;" and it was so. Our 

 rheumatism was not cured, but relieved; whether 

 It was owing to being stung, or working and per- 

 spiring freely in the v/arm sunshine, we are not able 

 to say. 



If we are not mistaken, physicians say that rheu- 

 matism is owing to the presence of urea in the 

 blood, and as the poison of the bee acts upon the 

 kidneys, we are of the opinion, formed from obser- 

 vation upon our own person, that it will relieve 

 acute rheumatism somewhat. But the rheumatism 

 that we will now describe is not, in our opinion, go- 

 ing to be cured by the sting3 of bees, any thing gent- 

 ly rubbed on the surface, or that passes down the 

 throat. The ancients called this disease rheuma. 

 tism, from rheum, to flow, as the mucous glands se- 

 creted an excess of fluids of an altered character. 

 These fluids, in process of time, form a hardened 

 substance on the bones and among the muscles, 

 which, for lack of any other name, we will describe 

 as bones. The flesh harden?, and you could just as 

 easily pinch up cold pork with your fingers, as this 

 rheumatic flesh; It is cold, and the bones and mar- 

 row also. Sometimes the cords and sinews are all 

 knotted up, like tarred rope, and the afflicted per- 



son can not straighten his limbs or arms. In our 

 travels this summer we providentially met a person 

 who had learned to crush these bones, or " critters," 

 as he called them, and work the hardened flesh until 

 it was soft and natural, and straighten out the knot- 

 ted cords. The treatment was as follows: The body 

 was first thoroughly washed with warm soft water, 

 and a mixture, composed of castile soap, saltpeter, 

 and hartshorn. Then the doctor rubbed in oil on a 

 small portion of the body, and worked and rubbed 

 until the oil was absorbed. When he found one of 

 these " bon(!S " he used great pressure and crushed 

 them. When he was working one of these hard sub- 

 stances, it felt as if a jagged bone was cutting 

 through the raw flesh. The treatment was torture, 

 and very excruciating, but we stood it for seven 

 hours a day. The result of this treatment was soft- 

 ened flesh, limber joints, and increased circulation, 

 which gives warmth and good feeling. No person 

 but one of a strong will would endure to have knot- 

 ted cords worked for hours until they are straight- 

 ened. My rheumatic readers, do not stop moving as 

 long as your limbs or arms obey your will; for, as a 

 general thing, when a rheumatic stops he stays 

 stopped as long as he lives, and another's legs has 

 to do his walking and bidding. A few years since 

 we had dropsy, and could not wear our accustomed 

 clothing. We took no medicine, as it and us had a 

 fall out many years since, and we have never kissed 

 and made up, and are not likely to. It was winter, 

 and as spring came on we moved our bees into clean 

 hives, and let the bees sting us whenever inclined. 

 It was very hard work for us to get around, and car- 

 ry so much water, but we kept on working in the 

 sunshine, and as it was so hard to do. It caused us to 

 perspire freely; and before hot weather our dropsy 

 had entirely disappeared, and has never troubled us 

 since. Bee-keeping is just the thing that rheumatics, 

 and those dropsically inclined, need to hustle them 

 around lively. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Peoria, Illinois. 



I am very glad indeed to get an article like 

 the above, from one whose opinion will have 

 the weight that any thing does coming from 

 our good friend Mrs. Lucinda Harrison. I 

 feel sure the time is coming Avhen physic and 

 drugs for human ailments will, a great por- 

 tion of it, be laid aside, just as our doctors 

 have now laid aside the practice of blood- 

 letting, of a century ago. The evidence in 

 favor of bee-stings, for some forms of rheu- 

 matism at least, is now almost beyond con- 

 troversy, and we are almost if not quite as 

 sure in regard to dropsy, as will be seen 

 from this number and our last. I am strong- 

 ly inclined, however, to lay great stress on the 

 advantage of working in the situ and open 

 air, so as to perspire freely. I would sug- 

 gest to Mrs. L., that, instead of waiting for 

 spring, she have a greenhouse where she can 

 have the sun for a good many hours in the 

 day, even if she can not have the bees. I 

 should not be at all surprised if she might 

 have the bees too, every day the sun shines 

 in winter, ere many winters more pass. 

 The demand for early queens is getting to 

 be too great to allow of the idea slumbering 

 very much longer, of flying and raising bees 

 under glass. It is not only the rheumatic 

 ones who want to "keep moving," but it Is 

 advice I think the most of us need. Mrs. L., 

 I pray that when the kind Father sees fit to 



