^oo 



September, igog. 



American "Bee Journal 



culty in getting rid of it. There is a 

 question in my mind whether it could 

 not be clarified and bleached, as they 

 clarify and bleach the sugar syrups. Its 

 color is against it. 



As to its qualities for wintering bees, 

 I can very positively say that it is ob- 

 jectionable. There is undoubtedly much 

 foreign substance in it, and in long 

 winter 'confinements the bees suflfer 

 from its use. I would not, under any 

 consideration, try to winter bees in the 

 cellar with the honey-dew as winter 

 stores. Wintering out-of-doors would 

 be much safer if it happens that the 

 winter is mild, and the bees can have 

 a flight about twice a month. Honey- 

 dew is less injurious than the fruit- 

 juices which ferment in the hive as 

 soon as harvested, but it is inferior 

 even to the darkest fall honey more or 

 less loaded with pollen. 



We are so convinced of the unadvis- 

 ability of wintering bees upon this crop 

 that we have taken out of our hives all 

 of this substance that we could readily 

 extract. The season has helped us to 

 do away with it, for the bees have bred 

 heavily out of the remaining honey 

 during the latter part of July and fore- 

 part of August, and at this date (Aug. 

 15) there is very little of the product 

 left in the combs, the new honey hav- 

 ing begun to come in. I have never 

 seen any production of honey-dew at 

 other times than June, and it is advis- 

 able to remove it (when the bees har- 

 vest much of it) as promptly as possi- 

 ble after its flow. Well ripened honey- 

 dew granulates thoroughly and keeps 

 well, which is to me an evidence that it 

 is much similar to honey in its nature. 

 In removing the crop we extracted 

 from every comb that did not contain 

 unsealed larvs. The brood-combs from 

 which we extracted were then placed 

 in the center of the brood-nest. By 

 this method we are sure to secure sev- 

 eral combs without honey-dew in the 

 brood-nest, at the part where the bees 

 congregate to endure the longest con- 

 finement. 



Those who find their hive-bodies 

 well filled witii this substance at the 

 end of the fall flow, should not hesitate 

 to extract it and to feed other honey. 

 Sugar syrup, percolated by the method 

 first recommended by Dr. Miller, is 

 good bee-feed to replace honey-dew ; 

 but I never feed sugar syrup as long as 

 I have honey which is healthy and well 

 ripened. I have two reasons for this, 

 which are very plausible to me, al- 

 though they may not appeal so strongly 

 to others. The first reason is, honey is 

 the natural resource of bees, and that 

 their stomachs are therefore fitted to 

 digest it more satisfactorily than any 

 artificial preparation. The second rea- 

 son is, if I buy sugar when I have 

 honey to sell, I give outsiders an op- 

 portunity to accuse me of feeding my 

 bees to produce honey, and no matter 

 how nonsensical this accusation may 

 be, I much prefer to give calumny no 

 grounds for excuse. 



But let me strongly urge bee-keepers 

 to feed sugar syrup rather than buy un- 

 known honey for bee-feed. The finest 

 looking honey in the world may be 

 tainted with foul brood. The germ of 

 the bacillus is absolutely harmless to 

 luunan beings, and the prettiest honey 

 could give no warning of its danger for 



the bee-larvse. But honey in the stom- 

 ach of the worker-bee is in the very 

 best position to develop any injurious 

 microbe in the food of the larva. Our 

 bees are too valuable to us to be ex- 

 posed to unknown dangers. So if we 

 cannot feed our own honey, when we 

 remove the honey-dew from the hives, 

 let us feed only such honey as we know 

 positively to be immune, or let us use 

 sugar svrup. 

 Hamilton, III. 



Bee-Stings and Rheumatism 



BY DR. .'\. F. BONNEY. 



Frequently in the bee-papers, and 

 occasionally in the daily press, we see 

 mention of bee-stings as a "cure" for 

 rheumatism, notwithstanding that medi- 

 cal men abandoned the theory many, 

 many years ago as a result of constant 

 and persistent failures to " cure." 



Century Dictionary : " Cure : The 

 successful remedial treatment of a dis- 

 ease ; the restoration of a sick person 

 to health." 



The more incomprehensible a super- 

 stition the harder to eradicate it from 

 the minds of the people, and this propo- 

 sition that a bee-sting will cure rheu- 

 matism is the hardest to understand of 

 any the writer has ever heard. The 

 added statement that it will not, prob- 

 ably, cure all ki>id.< of rheumatism adds 

 to my mystification, for to the medical 

 world there is but one kind of rheuma- 

 tism — a disordered condition of the 

 system caused by an excess of uric acid 

 in the blood. However, to read what 

 the non-medical healers assert, one 

 might think that "lumbago," "sciatica," 

 and " muscular rheumatism " were the 

 result of entirely difterent causes; but 

 as the contact of red-hot iron with the 

 small of the back, the thigh, or the 

 bicept muscle will cause a burn, so will 

 uric acid crystallizing out in the lum- 

 bar muscles cause lumbago; in prox- 

 imity to the great sciatic nerve cause 

 sciatica; and in any of the muscles of 

 the arms and legs muscular rheuma- 

 tism. That it becomes pleurodynia 

 in the muscles ot the chest, neuralgia 

 in the face, and gout in the toes, the 

 writer holds, for it is capable of proof 

 that uric acid will cause the troubles 

 mentioned. 



Then we have rheumatic iritis in the 

 microscopic muscles of the eye, rheu- 

 matism of the heart, etc., to the inflam- 

 matory rheumatism of the older writers, 

 and the assertion that bee-stings will 

 cure only one form of rheumatism only 

 shows the dense ignorance of those 

 who rush into print about a subject 

 of which they know nothing, a matter 

 which has been the despair of the most 

 learned physicians that ever lived, and 

 it is as much a problem today as it was 

 in the time of Hunter. These self-con- 

 stituted healers go so far as to take 

 fffcci for ctiKse. for I verily believe more 

 cases of rheumatism are caused by bee- 

 stings than cured. 



Let us look into the matter a little. 

 So far as the writer knows there is not 

 a medical writer who asserts tliat bee- 

 stings will " cure " the trouble men- 

 tioned, or that it will even relieve. 



Oh, Cure! how many sins have been 

 committed in thy name! 



There is a logic for the statement 

 that a bee-sting will cause an attack of 

 rheumatism, always remembering that 

 medicine is far from a science; noth- 

 ing more, in fact, than intelligent guess- 

 work, which accounts for the hundreds 

 and thousands of patent medicines (and 

 there is no such a thing as a paleul on 

 midiciuc), and the scores of schools 

 from the old " Regular " to the new 

 Osteopath. 



Centurv Dictionarv: "Urea: Car- 

 bamide, CO (NH2) 3, a crystalline solid, 

 soluble in icalir, and forming crystal- 

 line compounds with both acids and 

 basis." Being soluble in water the 

 urea penetrates every part of the sys- 

 tem, and the chemistry of the system 

 changes it into (Century Dictionary) : 

 " Uric acid, an acid, C.5N4H403, char- 

 acteristic of urine. It crystallizes in 

 scales of various shapes, * * 

 is heavier than water, nearly insoluble 

 in it when cold, and only to a slight cx- 

 Unl dissoli'ed by if i<.-licn hot." 



The italics are mine, because I wish 

 to call attention to the fact that vve 

 have no (/«/i7o and true solvent for uric 

 acid which now exists in every micro- 

 scopic part of the body, brute or hu- 

 man, for the lower forms of life have 

 the same trouble. The crystals have 

 to be eliminated by the pores of the 

 skin and by the great sewer of the 

 body— the urinary tract. True, it does 

 seem sometimes as though electricity, 

 hot baths and other things do good— 

 " cure," if you will— but like cause 

 (treatment) does not always produce 

 like results (cure). 



The liver is constantly taking nitro- 

 gen from the system and converting it 

 into urea, which exists as one of the 

 normal constituents of the blood, and 

 some of it is converted into uric acid. 

 In process of formation this is fluid, as 

 are all crystalline bodies. After it is 

 formed it is thrown from the body by 

 the kidneys and through the perspira- 

 tion, and here is the cause of rheuma- 

 tism — the failure of the system to throw 

 off or expel the surplus ot poison, the 

 crystals of uric acid prick the tender 

 nerves. This is rheumatism. 



If the system could be kept at pne 

 temperature, if there were no physical 

 or mental shocks, no bee-stings, no 

 alcoholic intoxication, no exposure to 

 c(dd winds, a person might never know 

 of the existence in its circulation of 

 an excess of uric acid. The cold, and 

 wet, and mental shock, have been 

 proven a cause of a rheumatic attack— 

 I believe bee-stings will also cause it. 

 Not the poison of the sting, but the 

 shock, the pain. But a sudden change 

 of temperature will not always cause 

 rlieumatism, nor will mental shock, or 

 bee-stings, even if the system is sur- 

 charged with uric acid, and it may sur- 

 prise the bee-sting doctors to learn 

 that we can determine to a margin of 

 one percent the amount of urea in the 

 blood. By that same token, what will 

 cure the disorder in one person may 

 not in another, nor, for that matter, 

 will it alwavs cure the same person 

 twice. This applies to electricity, hot 

 baths, and medicines. I shall not try 

 to list the latter, for evei-y drug in the 

 phar?naeopiea has at onetime or another 

 been used by the doctors in their vain- 

 hunt FOR ACURE FOR THIS UNIVERSAL 

 AILMENT. And when a person states 



