Nov. 23. 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



741 



ployed, and the first artificial food of the infant was com- 

 posed of honey and sourinilk. 



In taking honey from a hive the sacred books of the 

 far East prescribed great care, in order that the hive be not 

 injured. The wanton destruction of a hive was regarded 

 as a heinous sin, and one of the 88,000 hells which are con- 

 veniently provided in the theology of Brahma and Buddha 

 was set aside especially for sinners of that class. 



The cultivation of the sugar-cane, which became gen- 

 erally- known at the time of the Crusades, and the discovery 

 of beet-sugar, 150 years ago, have made artificial sweets so 

 cheap that bee-culture no longer, as it did in the middle 

 centuries, controls the market for sweets, and few bee-hives 

 are now found in the European countries where they were 

 abundant 1,000 orSOO years ago. 



When we regard honey as food, of course we recognize 

 that it occupies the same position as sugar or any other 

 soluble carbohydrate. 



I have been much interested in what I have heard to-night 

 about honey as a food, especially in the comparisons made 

 between honey and butter. I have not time to give the 

 analyses of honey in comparison with other food, as I had 

 intended. While honey may supply the place of starch or 



Fii.iii ( , l.Miuii;: - in I;, I -Ciillure. 



Prof. H. W. Wiley. 



butter in the animal economy, it cannot supply the place of 

 protein. Therefore, honey and meat cannot be compared 

 as articles of diet, since they belong to entirely difi^erent 

 classes of foods. Man can live by bread alone, altho the 

 Good Book says he cannot. 



Honey can supply heat and support energy, but it can- 

 not nourish tissues containing nitrogen, without the help 

 of some other kinds of nourishment, as, for instance, eggs, 

 beans, lean meat, milk and bread. 



It is very properly said that honey is one of the most 

 easily digested foods of any class. If we eat starch it must 

 first be converted into sugar before it undergoes the final 

 processes of digestion. While starch is just as nourishing' 

 as honey, it must first undergo this preliminary fermenta- 

 tion before it becomes useful as a food. 



A soldier mvist have something to eat on the march, 

 something concentrated and quickly assimilable. While 

 he is not nourisht by sugar alone, yet sugar or honey 

 furnishes a condenst emergency ration of the greatest 

 value. 



Among rice-eating nations, the Chinese and Japanese, 

 for instance, can endure long working hours without 

 fatigue. This shows that a food very rich in carbohj-drate 

 can support muscular vigor. 



The pusher of the jinriksha will go longer distances 

 than many a flesh-eating laborer could possibly cover. Rice 



is a nourishing food, because it sujiplies carbohydrates. 

 Honey is a food of a similar kind. 



I will admit that to many people honey is a luxury. We 

 can buy sugar that contains no water for five cents a pound. 

 Honey contains water — we do not care to pay for water, 

 which is not regarded as a food of commercial importance. 

 Sugar has made sweets so cheap that honey is iiot in so 

 great demand as formerly, and yet honey is so cheap that it 

 can no longer be regarded as a luxury. 



When I was a young man, and trying to get a little 

 education, I was anxious to get into Switzerland, not so 

 much to get learning, but to get honey. But what I got 

 there was American glucose. I didn't .see a bee-hive while 

 there. If you have a varietj' of bees that can make honey 

 out of snow, take them to Switzerland ; they would find 

 there an inexhaustible suppl)' of the raw material. 



It is surprising what a rich country we have — what an 

 amount of luxuries we have ! Most of us can afford to have 

 honey for breakfast, and we would all be healthier if we 

 would eat more honey and less meat at our matutinal meals. 

 It is a rare thing to find honey on a hotel table, and if 

 you do, it's glucose ! 



I will dwell only a few minutes on the third part of my 

 subject, and that is the adulteration of honey. I can add 

 nothing to the remarks that have been made on this sub- 

 ject, but it is an important one. If we could stop the adul- 

 terations there would be no trouble in getting a good price 

 for our honey, and people would eat far greater quantities 

 of it did they feel certain that it was genuine. 



I do not believe in prohibition of any kind. I believe in 

 man being a free moral agent. If Mary Walker wants to 

 wear trousers, let her wear them. Some one in the Good 

 Book said, "If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat 

 no flesh while the world standeth." I would not go so far 

 as that, but if we are to be total abstainers it should be 

 voluntarily, and not at the mandate of the law. We all 

 have the same rights in what we should wear, eat and drink. 

 Butter has no more right in the market than oleomar- 

 garine, but oleomargarine has no right on the market as 

 butter. If I were going on a distant journey I would take 

 oleomargarine, for it is harder than butter, and would keep 

 better. But when I buy butter I don't want to buy oleo- 

 margarine. When I buy honey I don't want to buy glucose. 

 I have heard speeches against food adulterations that 

 have done more harm than good, because of their intem- 

 perate statements. I was once askt, "What is the extent 

 of the adulterations of food?" I answered, " It is difficult 

 to give the exact figures, but I think at some time or other, 

 and in some country or other, about 90 percent of all human 

 foods have been adulterated. But the actual existing 

 amount of adulteration is probably less than five percent." 

 Well, the newspapers reported that Dr. Wiley had stated 

 that 90 peixent of all foods on the market were adulterated. 

 Well, that alleged statement was "sweeter than honey " to 

 Germany and France. It was copied in all the trade and 

 agrarian journals of those countries as a reason for exclud- 

 ing American food products from their markets. On any 

 other subject extravagant statements do more harm than 

 good. 



I hope to see the day when we shall have a national 

 law and State laws, regulating the manufacture and sale of 

 adulterated foods ; when concealed adulterations of food 

 products will be a criminal offence, and the " little 

 strength " we have now in that direction be grown into a 

 national power, protecting industry and securing honest 

 markets for its fruits. In the present condition of affairs 

 one cannot be certain of the composition of the many at- 

 tractive dishes a well-spread table offers him. He hesitates 

 before partaking of the feast, no matter how tempting the 

 scene may be. The one question he propounds to himself 

 has been well put by the poet who pertinently asks — 



"I WONDER WHAT'S IN IT." 



We sit at a table delightfully spread. 



And teemiu*? with jr<i<>d thing's to eat, 



And daintily finj^er the cream-timed bread 



Just needing to make it complete 



A film of the butter so yellow and sweet, 



Well suited to make every minute 



A dream of delight; and yet, while we eat, 



We cannot help asking, " What's in it ?" 



O maybe this bread contains alum and chalk. 



Or sawdust chopt up very fine ; 



Or gypsum in powder, about which they talk. 



Terra alba just out of the mine. 



And our faith in this butter is apt to be weak, 



