,370 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



A "Scieiitiflc Pleasantry." 



On page 243 of the Bee Jouiikal 

 we piiblislied, under the heading 

 " Bliinderers in High Places," an ex- 

 cerpt from the Indiana Farmer, attri- 

 buting recliless language to Gov. Por- 

 ter, of Ohio, and unscientific asser- 

 tions to Prof. Riley. A recent num- 

 ber of the Farmer reprints our article 

 with a criticism or rejoinder from a 

 Mr. II. VV. Wiley, which is certainly 

 original in its style, if not very witty. 

 Following are his remarks : 



The above extract from a recent 

 number of the Bee Journal, is such 

 a successful piece of humor that one 

 not acquainted with its origin, should 

 assign it to Mark Twain. 



" Glucose " has the same effect on 

 the Bee .Toitunai, man that a red rag 

 has on an infuriated bull, and it is de- 

 cidedly amusing to see the awful an- 

 ger which this innocent taffy facient 

 can produce. 



As I am probably the person meant 

 by the " Prof. Riley" alluded to in 

 their mellifluous effusion, I think it 

 but just to the eminent entomologist 

 of tlie agricultural department that I 

 should relieve him of all responsibil- 

 ity for the '• recklessness " which 

 seems about to destroy his "posthu- 

 mous reputation as a scientist." 



I am perhaps also directly responsi- 

 ble for the " gross blunders " of Gov. 

 Porter, and so I hasten in propria 

 persona, and not as Prof. Riley, to 

 take the whole burden of the Bee 

 Journai/s wrath on my own feeble 

 shoulders. Perhaps it may be well 

 enough to give here the origin of the 

 " parafflne comb " story which has 

 appeared, I believe, in almost every 

 publication in the country. The orig- 

 inal appeared in the Popular Science 

 Monthlv for June, 1881, in an article 

 entitled " Glucose and Grape Sugar," 

 which I contributed to that number, 

 and on page 254, occur the following 

 words : "Bees eat glucose with the 

 greatest avidity; or rather, they act 

 as funnels by which the glucose is 

 poured into the comb. For it is quite 

 true that honey made by bees whicli 

 have free access to glucose differs 

 scarcely at all from the glucose itself. 

 But the quantity of honey which a bee 

 will store away when fed on glucose 

 Is truly wonderful. This gluttony, 

 however, rauidly undermines the 

 apiarian constitution, and tlie bee 

 rarely lives to enjoy the fruits of its 

 apparent good fortune. In commer- 

 cial honey, which is entirely free from 

 bee mediation, the comb is made of 

 parafline, and filled with pure glucose 

 by appropriate machinery." 



Tills last clause which, when writ- 

 ten, was meant for a scientific pleas- 

 antry, came near throwing the whole 

 bee world into epilepsy. It appears 

 that persons who devote themselves 

 to Bbe Journals undergo a certain 

 cerebral inspiration wliich renders 

 them incapable of seeing a joke. 1 he 

 only point which they can appreciate 

 seems to be the sting of a bee. Gov- 

 ernor Porter, in his able and inter- 



esting address, said something simi- 

 lar to the above, and succeeded, as he 

 intended, in raising a liearty laugh. 

 I am appalled to think of the awful 

 solemnity with which the Governor's 

 remark would have been received had 

 his audience been composed exclu- 

 sively of editors of the Bee Journal., 

 instead of the intelligent yeomanry of 

 Bartholomew county. - 



Governor Porter, however, did say 

 that an eminent apiculturist told him 

 that he could only tell genuine horn 

 artificial lioney by the after taste of 

 formic acid which the genuine honey 

 left in his throat. 



Perhaps in order to secure a " pos- 

 thumous reputation," for which I care 

 little, I might undertake here to show 

 the Bee Journal the great similar- 

 ity between genuine honey and good 

 glucose, but I fear it would be "love's 

 labor lost." He is evidently suffering 

 from an acute attack of ghico-phobia, 

 and what I might say with the best 

 intentions would only throw him into 

 another spasm. When in " posthu- 

 mous " times he shall send on those 

 vast expanses of flowerful clover to 

 which all good bee journal editors 

 go, and live oil of ethereal " milk and 

 honey," let us hoj)e that he may never 

 find his milk chalk-water, nor his 

 honey glucose. H. W. Wiley. 



Lafayette, Ind. (late Riley). 



The rejoinder reminds us of an 

 anecdote we heard many years ago, 

 located in a rural district in Indiana. 

 A well-to-do farmer lost a very fine 

 filly from his pasture-lot, and after 

 several days' search found it snugly 

 tied in the log barn of a distant 

 neighbor of doubtful repute. The 

 neighbor was indicted, tried, and 

 found guilty of larceny ; when the 

 Judge asked what he had to say, why 

 sentence should not be passed, he put 

 in a plea that the animal was only 

 taken for a joke. The Judge inquired 

 how far his barn was from the pasture 

 lot, to which he replied, " about 5 

 miles." " Well," said the Judge, 

 " that is carrying a joke too tar ; hard 

 labor in the penitentiary for seven 

 years." The writer above says he 

 contributed to the Popular Science 

 Monthly his " parafflne comb " story 

 [lie] about a year ago, " which has ap- 

 peared in almost every publication in 

 the country." The latter part of the 

 article, however, was only meant for 

 a scientific pleasantry. 



Do scientific men indulge in pleas- 

 antries which will cast a gloom over 

 thousands of honest producers through- 

 out the country, and depreciate the 

 value of their product by creating a 

 prejudice against it? For nearly a 

 year this sdentific joker saw his fabri- 

 cation published in nearly all the 

 papers in the country, and reiterated 

 from across the ocean, and yet he 



lacked the manhood to afTirm it a joke 

 until the "Bee Journal man" 

 counteracted its influence by showing 

 the falsity and absurdity of the arti- 

 cle. Whether it be true, as has been 

 often intimated, that the story was 

 instigated by parties interested in the 

 glucose traffic, in retaliation for the 

 hostility of the bee men to their 

 frauds, we cannot affirm ; but we do 

 believe it originated with no honest 

 intention. It is quite probable the 

 article would never have attained the 

 dignity of requiring a refutation, had 

 it appeared in a less accredited author- 

 ity than the Popular Science Monthly. 

 And considering the author's icaggish 

 proiiensilies, can it be possible he 

 furnished the Indiana Farmer the 

 item attributing to trof. Riley the 

 utterance of his own falsehoods ? 

 Evidently the Farmer placed toomuch 

 confidence in the veracity of some one 

 other than their own reporter. That 

 paper, in its issue of the 10th inst., 

 alludes to the article above, and evi- 

 dently as deeply deplores Mr. Wiley's 

 tergiversations as do all others hon- 

 estly inclined. Quoting after the 

 " street gamins " it says, " Shoot the 

 ' scientific pleasantry'. " 



Could any possible good result to 

 society at large from such recklessas- 

 sertions, there might be some pallia- 

 tion ; but when the only justification 

 which can be urged is that it was in- 

 tended as a " scientific pleasantry," 

 it leaves the author but little to con- 

 gratulate himself upon, even though 

 he has succeeded in disgusting the 

 world. H. W. Wiley (late Riley) has 

 earned for himself a posthumous repu- 

 tation, which will stand second only 

 to that of his illustrious prototype, 

 Ananias. 



i^Mr. Peter Brickey,Salvisa, Ky., 

 has sent us a portion of a frame ex- 

 hibiting his method of fastening 

 foundation for the brood chamber. 

 He makes a V-shaped groove in the 

 center of the top-bar, stands the 

 foundation on edge in this groove, 

 and fastens it by pouring melted wax 

 along the sides, in the groove. The 

 work is very neatly performed, and 

 quite as substantial as comb itself. 

 After the frames are prepared, we 

 should think the work could be rapidly 

 done. 



Examine the Date following your 

 name on the wrapper label of this 

 paper; it indicates the end of the 

 month to which you have paid your 

 subscription on the Bee Journal. 



