HONEY. 231 



and Carolina it is so similar, in all respects, to 

 innocent honey, that the hunters depend upon 

 experience only, and, knowing that bad honey 

 soon shows its effects, they at first eat very spa- 

 ringly. The converse of this would appear in the 

 " blood-red honey" found by Mr. Bruce at Dixan 

 in Abyssinia, to which he ascribes no evil proper- 

 ties. (Travels to the Nile, vol. v.) Linnaeus in- 

 forms us, that in Sweden, the honey of autumn is 

 principally gathered from the flowers of the Erica 

 or Heath, and that it has a reddish cast. The 

 honey of our native heaths is also of the same 

 colour. Dr. Barton has observed that during his 

 residence at Edinburgh, the Highland honey was 

 often of a dirty brownish colour, which was sup- 

 posed to be given to it by the " blooming hather," 

 as Burns calls it : the people of Edinburgh, how- 

 ever, though great consumers of it, never complain 

 of any ill effects from it. It produced upon the 

 Doctor a soporific effect. The most innocent 

 honey will often disagree with those who take it 

 in large quantities, or who have irritable bowels ; 

 usually, in such cases, it produces purging, and 

 sometimes griping pain. The mischievous quali- 

 ties of honey have been said to be destroyed by 

 boiling and straining, or even by long keeping 

 only ; yet when made into metheglin, it has 

 been found as deleterious as ever. 



The quality of honey varies with the time of 



