THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



261 



Explanatory.— The figures before the 

 names indicate the number of years that the 

 person has Isept bees. Those after, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 previous sprinjr and fall, or fall and spring, 

 as the time of the year may require. 



This mark © indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near the centre of the State named: 

 5 north of the centre ; ? south ; O* east ; 

 ♦Owest; and this 6 northeast; ^northwest; 

 o^ southeast; and ? southwest of the centre 

 of the State mentioned. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Medicinal Proiierties of Honey, 



G. P. HACHENBBRG, M. D. 



The physiological effects of honey 

 are singularly effective, though mild 

 and passive in their character. It occu- 

 pies a broad line between alimenta- 

 tion and therapeutics, being both food 

 and medicine ; therefore it belongs to 

 that class of medicinal remedies that 

 cure indirectly, that is, by putting the 

 vital forces in such a condition as to 

 enable them to overcome diseased 

 action. Mineral waters, cod liver oil, 

 glycerine, malt, etc., all belong to this 

 class of remedies. 



Before speaking of the curative 

 properties of honey we will note its 

 physical properties. 



In the first place, where is honey 

 from V Some assert that it is a secre- 

 tion of the bee, others that it is a 

 natural product in plants. If it is a 

 natural vegetable product, the labor- 

 atory would have furnished us, long 

 ago, with genuine honey. It must be 

 remembered that the sugar and glu- 

 cose in the flowers and fruit that bees 

 resort to, is never honey until it has 

 passed through the stomach of the 

 bee, and please do not call this organ a 

 bladder, as some do. It is virtually a 

 stomach and performs the functions 

 of that organ. The bee gathers into 

 it a saccharine material. After its 

 reception, a gastric element is mixed 

 with it for two purposes, one to 

 give it the character of honey, and 

 the other to make it assimulative for 

 the formation of an oil, that is, per- 

 fect wax. 



It is generally supposed that after a 

 bee returns to its hive with its treas- 

 ure, that it hurriedly dumps it into a 

 cell and goes out for another, and so 

 on. This is not the case ; when the 

 bee returns, from fatigue and under 

 the stupefying influence of digestion, 

 it has to abide its time, both to recu- 

 perate, and to get rid of its burden of 

 honey and wax. AVe have reason to 

 believe that even after the honey is 

 deposited into the cells, it has yet to 

 .receive the linishing touch of perfec- 

 tion by the bees, in all probability by 

 the young bees of the hive. The 

 young bees are active house-keepers 

 in the hive ; they live on tl-.e honey 

 imported, and this rich, concentrated 

 food demands an excess of gastric 



secretion; when coming- to a certain 

 X)oint, it creates a regurgitation sorae- 

 ihiiig akin to vomiting. This the 

 young bee economically puts back 

 into the cells, thus completing the 

 process of honey making. Another 

 jjoint as to the character of the bee's 

 stomach : As soon as it is unloaded, 

 an insatiable sense of hunger and 

 restlessness ensues, which at once 

 forces the old bee to work abroad and 

 the young at home. We all know how 

 to respect the buzz of the hungry bee, 

 and admire the sweet disposition of 

 the one that has just finished a 

 sumptuous repast. And how rare are 

 family jars when the pantry is ever 

 full. It is Nature's law, in all the 

 same. 



We go more especially into these 

 details, to point out the medical prop- 

 erties of honey. It has two physical 

 elements that make it particularly a 

 medicine, viz. 1. An aromatic irri- 

 tant imparted to it by the stomach of 

 the bee. 2. Its ready transformation 

 into fat ; without those complicated 

 physiological operations necessary to 

 transfer other saccharine elements 

 into this material. 



These make it at once both a local 

 and constitutional remedy. Locally, 

 it is an irritant, sedative, emoluent, 

 detergent, antiseptic, resolvent, rube- 

 facient and a parasiticide. Constitu- 

 tionally it is nutrient, demulcent, lax- 

 ative, deobstruent, alterative, tonic, 

 expectorant, restorative, febrifuge, 

 diuretic, diaphoretic, vermifuge and 

 antaphrodisiac, as well as containing 

 certain poisonous properties mani- 

 fested under peculiar circumstances. 



When we say that honey is both an 

 irritant and a sedative we mean that 

 its first effects may irritate, followed 

 with a sedative etiect. All liniments 

 work beneficially on this princi- 

 ple, the same with the most of eye- 

 waters, etc. The solution of honey 

 as an eye-water, proves particularly 

 beneficial on account of its antisep- 

 tic, absorbent or resolvent properties. 

 It cures inflammation of the eye, in 

 the way a solution of borac acid does, 

 that is, mainly by reason of its anti- 

 septic and sedative properties. 



The irritant properties of honey are, 

 in a great measure, destroyed by 

 dilution. Therefore as a topical irri- 

 tant, where we wish to favor resolu- 

 tion, by counteraction, it is used in a 

 pure state or in conjunction with 

 other more active irritants. It is its 

 irritant or rubefacient effect joined 

 with its emoluent nature, that precip- 

 itate local inflammation into suppura- 

 tion, and is, therefore, a suitable 

 remedy for abcesses, boils, whitlows, 

 carbuncles, etc. Therefore, woe to 

 the one that applies a honey-plaster 

 over an inflamed eye, in place of the 

 solution ! As a rubefacient and ab- 

 sorbent it makes an excellent local 

 application in glandular swelling, and 

 in chronic tumefaction, in particular 

 when joined with iodine, iodoform or 

 mercury. 



On account of the temperature of 

 the body, it is difficult to keep pure, 

 undiluted honey on the surface ; this 

 can in a measure be remedied by sat- 

 urating layers of Canton flannel, and 

 apply them, changing frequently. 



I speak of it as a parasiticide not 

 only in connection with the theory of 

 the pathageiiesis of diseases as advo- 

 cated Vjy Pasteur, ("olin, Koch, Klebs, 

 and others who have investigated the 

 bacteria, but even those who created 

 .several skin diseases, well known by 

 almost every one. Take honey for 

 the destruction of the bacteria, be- 

 cause of its antiseptic, tonic and laxa- 

 tive effects, its daily use would 

 disarm every dire and malignant 

 disease of "its destructive force. 

 Cholera, yellow fever, small-pox, 

 scarlatina and diphtheria may run 

 their course as before, but compara- 

 tively in such a mild form as to afford 

 but little anxiety. I only speak of 

 honey as a preventive of malignancy 

 in these diseases, and not as a cura- 

 tive agent. 



I have reason to think that it may 

 even serve as a prophylaxis in epi- 

 demic diseases. Last year, Austin 

 and vicinity were afflicted with an 

 epidemic of dengue, prostrating nine- 

 tenths of its inhabitants ! My resi- 

 dence and apiary is two miles south 

 from the city ; and I suppose almost 

 every one in our neighborhood had 

 the disease ; however my family and 

 servants never took it, although we 

 kept a daily communication with the 

 city, and with persons having the dis- 

 ease. I cannot account for this 

 exemption, which created a great 

 surprise among our friends, unless it 

 was the honey we ate almost at every 

 meal. 



The constitutional effects of honey 

 cannot be fully understood and appre- 

 ciated, except to study it from its 

 medical properties, as represented 

 above. All scientific investigation 

 of remedies are made in like manner. 

 It is the text to a long and complica- 

 ted sermon. Every physician will 

 read in it such a multiplicity of appli- 

 cations, that would astonish the un- 

 initiated. 



As a nutrient I will not speak of it 

 as food but in connection with its 

 properties that serve to arrest the 

 waste of certain diseases, in particu- 

 lar in consumption. The important 

 features of the medical properties of 

 honey lie in the nutrient, expector- 

 ant, ' deobstruent and restorative 

 effects in the management of con- 

 sumption, and its allied diseases. 

 Now let us go back to a fact that 

 exists in the process of making honey. 

 No honey could be had, if it were not 

 for its ready metamorphosis into oil, 

 or in other words in the making of 

 wax, as stated. The great object in 

 the treatment of consumption is to 

 arrest waste. Therefore we resort to 

 the use of oils or remedies that will 

 readily make fat in the system. But 

 the great difficulty in The way, is to 

 get the system to accept these rem- 

 edies and effect their assimilation. 

 Under Leibig's authority we give 

 sugar freely to make fat, but the sys- 

 tem often refuses it, as it does the 

 oil, for before it can be assimilated it 

 has to be changed into a glucose, or 

 really into pretty much what honey 

 itself is. This alone gives us a great 

 advantage in giving honey to stay 

 the waste caused by disease, tiia 

 have in no other remedy. 



