206 APIDiE — BEES. 



in the Orinoco country, which, says Captain Stedraan, the 

 roosting tril)es burn incessantly in their habitations, and 

 which effectually protects them from all winged insects. 

 They call it Conwjou; Gumilla says it is neither earth uor 

 wax.^ 



Concerning the medicinal virtues of Bees, Dr. James 

 says: "Their salts are very volatile, and highly exalted; 

 for this reason, when dry'd, powder'd, and taken internally, 

 they are diuretic and diaphoretic. If this powder is mixed 

 in unguents, with which the head is anointed, it is said to 

 cure the Alopecia, and to contribute to the growth of hair 

 upon bald places."^ 



Another, an old writer, says: "If Bees, when dead, are 

 dried to powder, and given to either man or beast, this 

 medicine will often give immediate ease in the most excru- 

 ciating pain, and remove a stoppage in the body when all 

 other means have failed." A tea made by pouring boiling 

 water upon Bees has recently been prescribed, by high medi- 

 cal authority, for violent strangury ; while the poison of the 

 Bee, under the name of apis, is a great homoeopathic 

 remedy.^ 



Concerning wax. Dr. James says : " All wax is heating, 

 mollifying, and moderately incarning. It is mixed in sorbile 

 liquors as a remedy for dysentery ; and ten bits, of the size 

 of a grain of millet, swallowed, prevent the curdling of milk 

 in the breast of nurses."* 



[If we might credit the history of former times, says Jamie- 

 son, in his Scottish Dictionary, sub. Walx, iv. 642-3, there 

 must have been a considerable demand for this article (wax) 

 for the purpose of witchcraft. It was generally found neces- 

 sary, it would seem, as the medium of inflicting pain on the 

 bodies of men. 



" To some others at these times he teacheth, how to make 

 pictures of icaxe or clay, that by the wasting thereof, the 

 persons that they beare the name of, may be continually 

 melted or dried away by continuall sickenesse." K. James's 

 Deeraonologie, B. II. c. 5. 



In order to cause acute pain in the patient, pins, we are 



1 Trav., i, 9. 



2 Med. Did. 



3 Langstroth on Honey- Bee, p. 315, note. 

 * Med. Diet. 



