22 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 19, 



wmm 



Read before the Michigan State Convention. 



Honey and its Adulteration. 



.!. P. H. BROWN. 



I shall not task your patience by any 

 discussion of the mere physical charac- 

 teristics of honey. You are all familiar 

 with its history; but with its chemical 

 composition there may be less famili- 

 arity. 



Honey as secreted by the flowers, and 

 when in its liquid state, has the same 

 chemical formula of elements as fruc- 

 tose or fruit-sugar, an uncrystilizable 

 saccharine substance abounding in 

 grapes, tigs and other fruit. It also 

 contains some coloring matter, a trace 

 of formic acid, gum, and a little man- 

 nite or manna-sugar. 



After honey passes into the candied 

 form and assimilates some of the ele- 

 ments of water, its chemical formula 

 becomes similar to glucose which is also 

 a saccharine product of fruits. The 

 formula of glucose as given by Brand 

 and Taylor, very eminent chemical 

 authority, is C 12 It 14 O u , which may be 

 read 12 atoms of Carbon and 14 atoms 

 each of Hydrogen and Oxygen. 



From the fact that there is a similar- 

 ity in the formulae of honey and glucose, 

 it is urged by the advocates of honey 

 adulteration that glucose has substanti- 

 ally the same physical properties as 

 honey, and the same degree of whole- 

 someness as food for the human or- 

 ganism. This is incorrect reasoning. 

 The premises are false. 



In organic chemistry there are many 

 substances that possess the same num- 

 ber of atoms of the same elements, and 

 yet their properties are most dissimilar. 

 For instance, the oils of turpentine, 

 lemon, bergamot, cloves and thyme are 

 represented by the same formula, and 

 yet their physical and chemical proper- 

 ties are entirely different. On this sub- 

 ject Brand and Taylor, the authorities 

 previously referred too, observe : 

 " When two compounds can be proved 

 to be formed of the same elements in 

 the same proportions by weight, it 

 would appear to be a reasonable infer- 

 ence that their properties should be 

 identical, but chemistry teaches us that 

 this condition may exist and yet the 

 substances be wholly different in chemi- 

 cal and physical properties. The fact 

 is. the properties lot the substance de- 

 pend not only on the nature of the ele- 

 ments, and the number of atoms of 

 each, but on the mode in which these 

 elements are grouped or arranged. 

 Gum, starch and sugar are isomeric, or 

 are constituted of a like number of 

 atoms of the same elements, and the 

 difference in their properties can there- 

 fore only be ascribed to a difference of 

 arrangement among these atoms." 



Glucose, instead of being a natural 

 product like honey, distilled in God's 

 own laboratory in the flower, is a vile 

 chemical preparation possessing proper- 

 ties entirely different from honey, and 

 ruinous to the health of its consumers. 

 It is usually produced in this country 

 by boiling starch in dilute acids. Sul- 

 phuric acid plays the most conspicuous 

 part, but muriatic and nitric acids enter 

 also in its manufacture. A bushel of 

 corn weighing 56 pounds will produce 

 some 30 pounds of glucose, and the 

 profits on a bushel is from 30 to 40 cents. 

 Some glucose factories consume over 

 6,000 bushels of corn every day. This 

 at a profit of 35 cents per bushel would 

 amount in the neighborhood of a mil- 

 lion dollars profit per annum. 



It is now used in enormous quantities 

 for the purpose of adulteration and 

 fraud in sugars, syrups and honey. 

 Fully one-fourth of all the common 

 grades of sugar consists of glucose. 

 This accounts for the fact that the 

 sweetening properties of our present 

 sugars are much inferior to those used 

 before the use of glucose. Two parts 

 of cane sugar contain as much sweet as 

 five parts of glucose. 



Our present syrups, unless genuine 

 plantation, are manufactured nearly 



wholly from glucose. Your "honey 

 syrup,'' your " maple drip "" and " rock 



candy drip " are all glucose frauds. A 

 short time ago I saw a lot of nice glass 

 jars in a large confectionary house in 

 Augusta, Ga., containing a small piece 

 of comb honey bathed in a clear syrup. 

 On taking one up, I read : " Thurber's 

 Best Honey ;" a little farther on, I read: 

 " In order to prevent the honey from 

 granulating it has been satuated with 

 corn syrup. Glucose ! " Corn syrup " ! ! 

 the d- — , by a mild, euphonious name ! ! 



There is no doubt but this nefarious 

 practice of adulterating the food we 

 eat, is daily on the increase. With this 

 adulteration, there is the notorious fact, 

 that dyspepsia, derangement of the 

 liver, and disease of the kidneys, are 

 also increasing among the consumers of 

 the trash that is sold for genuine. 



If the adulteration of honey is al- 

 lowed to go on without restriction, it 

 will ultimately destroy the entire honey 

 producing interests. It is somewhat of 

 a problem, how can this trafic in fraud 

 be restrained V Some advocate mission- 

 ary work — warn the people against the 

 use of fraudulent food, and point out 

 to them the dire consequences attending 

 its consumption. All this may be very 

 well, and do much good. "Moral 

 suasion "and earnest prayer are power- 

 ful ; but there are cases where, I believe, 

 it is necessary to use both prayer and 

 earnest blows in order to make an im- 

 pression. The love of sordid gain is so 

 dominant that men will adulterate — 

 commit fraud, cheat and swindle- 

 counterfeit the food we eat, and thereby 

 deal out solid and liquid deatli to their 

 fellows for dollars and cents. These 

 cases are to be met by statutory laws 

 rigorously enforced. 



I am satisfied that petitions to the 

 United States Congress will not avail. 

 The work must be done by State legis- 

 lation. Adulteration is fraud. To sell 

 adulterated food is cheating and swind- 

 ling. The penalty must be for fraud, 

 cheating and swindling. New Jersey 

 has some such law. Other states must 

 do likewise. When petitions fail it 

 must be made a political isssue, and 

 must be fought at the ballot box. It is 

 to be hoped that your Society will take 

 the initiative, and set the ball in motion 

 in your State. 



Augusta, Ga, 



Head before the Michigan State Convention. 



About Poisonous Honey. 



PROF. A.J. COOK. 



To some of you it may seem unwise 

 and impolitic to admit that honey is 

 everanything but nutritious and whole- 

 some. But others, of whom our worthy 

 brother lleddon is chief, think that the 

 whole truth concerning our vocation 

 should be told, even though the bitter 

 is mingled with the sweet. But the 

 facts to which I wish to call attention 

 to-day are so exceptional that I think 

 no one. need fear the revelation. 



The subject in question may, I think, 

 be considered under two heads : 1st, 

 honey poisonous because of the indi- 

 vidual peculiarity of the eater. In this 

 case the honey has no markedly dele- 

 terious qualities, for all honey affects 

 these individuals alike ; 2d, honey which 

 has absoutely poisonous quality, so that 

 whoever eats becomes a victim to the 

 noxious elements contained in the 

 honey. 



I presume that everyone present has 

 known some person who could never 

 eat honey, without serious incon- 

 venience. My own farther is such an. 

 one. Indeed," he is so suscepttible that 

 all honey, even in homeopathic quanti- 

 ties, induces severe colic, attended with 

 terribly griping pains. That this effect 

 was due to his individual peculiarities, 

 and not to the special honey, is evident 

 from the fact that all honey affects him 

 in the same way ; and further, honey 

 which would cause him severe distress 

 could be eaten by any of the other 

 members of our family with perfect 

 impunity. 



That this poisoning should be due to 

 some constitutional idiosyncrasy is not 

 hard to believe, for analogous facts are 

 by no means uncommon. I myself am 

 unable to eat cooked tomatoes without 

 discomfort. Says Chas. Dadant: "I 



cannot drink milk without suffering 

 from colic." The following from the 

 American Bee Journal, vol. 2, p. 

 231, is to the point: "Everyone is 

 aware that certain persons have pecu- 

 liarities about themselves which render 

 them very susceptible to morbid impres- 

 sions from causes which, on others, 

 have no effect whatever. 



" Physicians tell us that certain per- 

 sons are very susceptible to the action 

 of all mercurial preparations, one or 

 two grains of calomel producing severe 

 salivation, while others can take 20 or 

 30 grains without being in the least 

 salivated. Some persons cannot eat 

 cucumbers, nor sit at the table where 

 they are served. Certain persons are 

 afflicted with nettle rash (Urticaria) 

 whenever they eat pork. Some persons 

 are seized with a fit of asthma the 

 moment a particle of the root called 

 ipecacuanha is brought in contact with 

 their bodies." At our Michigan Agri- 

 cultural College our students have been 

 called to work in a swamp which 

 abounds in poison sumach (Rkus vene- 

 nata). Many can handle this terrible 

 shrub without the least inconvenience, 

 while others can hardly come in sight 

 of it without becoming victims to the 

 most intolerable pain and suffering, 

 which sometimes persists for years. 

 We conclude, then, that such cases of 

 honey poisoning as are now under dis- 

 cussion are due wholly to the individual, 

 and not to the honey. 



Mr. Langstroth (see American Bee 

 Journal, vol. 6, p. 221) and Mr. J. M. 

 Marvin, in the same Journal vol.2, p. 

 188) claim that the cause of such colic 

 is bee-sting poison, which is ejected 

 from the sting of the bees, and lodged 

 in the honey. It seems to me that this 

 view is untenable: 1, all honey con- 

 tains the liquid secreted by the poison 

 glands; 2, it is generally true that ani- 

 mal venom, like that of poisonous 

 snakes, is harmless if taken into the 

 alimentary canal. It is not probable 

 that bee venom is an exception. The 

 more probable explanation is this : that 

 all, or nearly all flower nectar contains 

 some element that acts asapoison when 

 taken into the stomach of certain per- 

 sons. Whatever this element may be. 

 it seems to be expelled, or converted 

 into some harmless compound, by heat 

 and by granulation. My father can eat 

 honey that has candied with no difficulty, 

 while the same honey, eaten before 

 crystallization, caused him great dis- 

 tress. Heating the honey seems to 

 work the same effect. I do not know 

 whether it is necessary to boil the honey 

 or not. If so, the quality of the honey 

 would be injured. Mr. Chas. Dadant 

 suggests that any one can overcome this 

 unwelcome peculiarity by commencing 

 to eat a very small quantity and con- 

 tinually increasing. In this way the 

 body becomes able to resist all evil 

 effects, and the person may soon safely 

 eat all that he craves. When we see 

 how foolish men become able to take 

 such poisons as tobacco and whisky ad 

 libitum, if not ad infinitum, we can 

 easily believe that Mr. Dadant is right. 

 I have heard it asserted that fresh milk, 

 if drank immediately after the honey 

 is eaten, is a sure preventive of all 

 attendant ills. 



Our second point, that some honey is 

 absolutely poisonous, so that all who 

 eat will suffer, is well established. 



Xenophon, in his account of the re- 

 treat of the ten thousand, as recorded 

 in the Anabasis, recounts the fact that 

 the soldiers sucked some honey combs 

 near Trebizonde, where there were a 

 great number of bee hives, and in con- 

 sequence were attacked with vomiting 

 and purging, So many were overcome 

 that the ground was so strewed with 

 their bodies as to resemble a field after 

 a great battle. He states that none 

 were lost, but that those who ate were 

 unconscious for 24 hours, and did not 

 regain their strength for three or four 

 days. Tournifort, when traveling in 

 Asia, investigated this matter, and con- 

 cluded that the honey was gathered 

 from the Rhododendron Ponticum, or 

 the Azalea Pontica. Father Lamberti 

 states that these shrubs are common 

 about Colehis and that the honey at that 

 place often produces effects similiar to 

 those described . by Xenophon. Dr. 

 Darwin says that the honey from some 

 plants is poisonous to man. Dr. Bar- 



on, of Philadelphia, in a paper pub- 

 lished in the American Philosphical 

 Transactions, says . that in 1790 the 

 honey collected near Philadelphia was 

 fatal to many. Thorough inquiry, in- 

 stituted by the government, determined 

 that the source of this poisonous nectar 

 was the Kalmia latifolia or .mountain 

 laurel. Bevan records the fact that two 

 persons at New York died from the 

 effect of eating honey gathered from 

 the drawf laurel (Kalmia augustifolia). 



Dr. Barton states that Kalmia hirsuta, 

 Rhododendron maximum, or great 

 laurel, Azalea nudiflora, Andromeda 

 mariana, and the Datura Stramonium 

 all produce honey that is poisonous both 

 to dogs and to the human species. The 

 symptoms, as given by Dr. Barton, are 

 dimness of sight, vertigo, delirium, 

 pain in the stomach and bowels, con- 

 vulsions, profuse perspiration, foaming 

 at the mouth, vomiting, purging, and 

 in some instances temporary paralysis, 

 but very seldom death. Similar cases 

 to those already narrated are detailed 

 in the New Jersey Medical Reporter for 

 November, 1852. 



J. Hammer, M. D., of Halifax Court 

 House, Va., a physician in the confed- 

 erate army, recounts, in Gleanings, vol. 

 3, p. 17, his own experience and that of 

 several others, which agree almost 

 entirely with what I have already given 

 from Xenophon and Dr. Barton. He 

 states that the honey was gathered from 

 the mountain laurel, which grew in the 

 Shenandoah valley, Virginia. 



About the middle of last October I 

 received a letter from Mr. G. who 

 lives in a neighboring state, in which it 

 was stated that some honey sent by Mr. 

 C. to some friends in New York city 

 had produced serious sickness. All 

 who ate of it noticed that there was a 

 sharp taste like that of cayenne pepper 

 and that it produced coughing upon 

 touching the throat. Suspicion being 

 aroused as to its wholesome character, 

 all but two present at the table refused 

 to eat, though two children took one or 

 two mouthfuls. The two who ate 

 heartily, to quote : " Soon complained 

 of nausea, vomited terribly, while their 

 extremities became cold. They soon 

 were unable to see. The children who 

 tasted but little of the honey were 

 troubled in the same way, but not so 

 badly. A doctor was called at once, 

 who gave an emetic and then whisky. 

 Soon all were well again. The pulse of 

 the one who was troubled worst was for 

 a time only 38 per minute. The doctor 

 tasted of the honey, and was sick all 

 night. 



1 sent to Mr. C. for some of the honey 

 which he kindly sent to me. The comb 

 honey is light colored, while some ex- 

 tracted honey which he sent, which is 

 less poisonous, if at all so, is dark. Mr. 

 C. says that all the honey which creates 

 the smarting sensation in the mouth and 

 induces the coughing, was certainly 

 gathered before July 10th. These 

 characteristics are so marked, that Mr. 

 C. could, by simply tasting, select the 

 honey that had the deleterious qualities. 

 Mr. C. does not know from what plants 

 the honey was gathered. 



I find that the honey received from 

 Mr. C. has one other quality not men- 

 tioned above, it is bitter, so much so as 

 to be decidedly unpleasant to my taste. 

 I thought to try the effect of heat upon 

 it, and so heated some of it till it boiled. 

 I kept tasting of it during the time of 

 heating, and also tasted of it after it 

 had boiled. I could see no dilierence in 

 the taste. Even after boiling for some 

 minutes, it still was peppery and bitter. 

 As my good wife objected decidedly to 

 my eating it, I cannot, unfortunately, 

 state whether the poison properties 

 escaped with the heating or not, but 

 the probabilites, I think, are that they 

 did not. 



I cannot offer any very practical sug- 

 gestions, I regret to say.'on this subject. 

 It would be interesting for Mr. C. to 

 determine whether any of the species of 

 Kalmia, Rhododendron, and Azalea, 

 mentioned above, abound in his locality. 

 Any good botanist of the region could 

 inform him as to this point. The time 

 of their blooming, as they all bloom in 

 June. I think, together with the fact 

 that they exist in a line south of him, 

 in the states of New Jersey, Pennsyl- 

 vania and Virginia, makes the inquiry 

 all the more desirable. 



