THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



485 



For tbe American Bee JournaL 



Apis Melliflca— Its Poison. 



JAJIBS HEDDON. 



Friend Newman.— Tlie following 

 article I wrote for the Homceopathic 

 Physician, a monthiy Jounial of Med- 

 ical Science published iu Philadelphia, 

 Ta. I am trying a remedy tliat has 

 been kindly presented to me by the 

 Homoeopathic Society, and will be 

 able to report its results later : 



At tlie request of Dr. Ballard, of 

 Chicago, 1 herewith give a brief ac- 

 count of my peculiar experience with 

 the poison from tlie honey bee. I 

 have been a specialist in ;ipiculture, 

 for the |)ast 14 years, and have learned 

 soinettung considerable about the 

 'business ; have consequently neglec- 

 ted learning other tilings, among 

 whicli anatomy and materia medica 

 are conspicuous. You will, conse- 

 quently, please accept my plain 

 statements given in the parlance of 

 an unprofessional. 



I am 87 years old, nervous-sanguine 

 temperament (in tlie extreme), weigh 

 185 lbs., and have good liealth, but ex- 

 cessive general, nervous irritation, 

 mostly in the form of mild clironic 

 neuralgia. My voice has always in- 

 dicated ratlier"weak bronchial oi^ans: 

 never had a cough, however, before I 

 experienced bee-poisoning. I began 

 bee-keeping on a somewhat exten- 

 sive scale, in tlie year 1878. As 

 stated before, it has Ijeen my sole oc- 

 cupation ever since. I have had as 

 many as .5.50 colonies, in 3 apiaries, at 

 one time. 



Seven years ago, I began to notice 

 an itching sensation in ttie ears. This 

 would come on at times, and after 

 about two years, it extended to tlie 

 glands inside tlie mouth, and near the 

 root of the tongue. After about one 

 more year, the sensation began to be 

 very severe in tlie roof of tlie mouth, 

 just around and in front of tbe palate. 

 It was at this time that I hist dis- 

 covered that the affection had a con- 

 nection with the bees. To sweep the 

 tloor of one of my rooms, where bees 

 had fallen and been trodden upon, 

 was sure to bring on this sensation at 

 once. Next, I found, that to open a 

 hive and breathe the odor of the bees 

 (esi)ecially if not thoroughly subdued) 

 would also cause the trouble. But, 

 business must be attended to, and I 

 persisted in working among the bees 

 and bee hives, till the itching and 

 tingling sensation crept down the 

 bronchial tubes all around about the 

 lungs. One night after a day's work 

 among the liees, I woke upabout mid- 

 night with the asthma. 



A celebrated travelling doctor, ex- 

 amined me " free," and gave me some 

 medicine for SIO.OO, and told me I had 

 a case of "bronchial" asthma, that 

 looked wicked. lie looked at my 

 throat (shorlly after a bee had) and 



" must have something done for it at 

 once." I was not sure then that bee- 

 poison was the cause. 



Finally, I began making tests ; 

 leaving the whole business for two 

 weeks, I was almost entirely clear of 

 all, except the tirst symptoms in the 

 ears, which only troubled me occas- 

 ionally. 



The tirst breath of bee-poison I in- 

 baled, on my return, was followed by 

 all the former symptoms, seemingly 

 in an increased degree, and in ten 

 minutes my throat turned red, and 

 clearly showed severe irritation. I 

 resolved to hire more help, add to the 

 business of honey production that of 

 manufacturing aiid selling bee-keep- 

 ers' supplies, and in tliat way absent 

 myself from contact with the virus 

 to a greater extent, and yet keep 

 busy. 



I have done so, and am in conse- 

 quence quite free from the tiouble 

 most of the time. But if I at any 

 time come in contact with the jioison, 

 my symptoms seem to be as radical as 

 ever, yes, even more so. I will cite 

 one instance. All apiarists know that 

 often when a maddened threatening 

 bee Hits around one's head she gener- 

 ally discharges into the air her poi- 

 son. It is recognized by the nasal or- 

 gans only. Now, I have found that 

 this occurs when none of the five 

 senses of the healthy bee-master 

 recognizes it. 



One day last autumn, after I had 

 kept from all contact with the poison 

 for some weeks, and had no trouble- 

 some symptoms, I stepped into my 

 yard, when an ugly bee passed within 

 about 8 inches of my face, discharging 

 poison as she passed. About one half- 

 hour after I was seized with perliaiis 

 the most severe paroxysm of my ex- 

 perience. First, symptoms were an 

 almost unbearable itching, -tingling 

 sensation, of the roof of the mouth, 

 and so on down the breathing tubes 

 as far as they extend ; then an asth- 

 matic filling-up sensation. For more 

 than S liours I could not speak aloud. 

 For two or three days I could not 

 raise my voice above common conver- 

 sation. All passed off, leaving me as 

 well as ever, by keeping away from 

 tlie poison. In correspondence witti 

 one Italian and one German, of large 

 apicultural experience in the old 

 countries, I learii that such cases are 

 known there. 



When we bear in mind the fact that 

 the older system of honey production, 

 as practiced in the old world, and in 

 this country till recently, did not 

 bring the operator into any such near 

 or constant contact with the bees, 

 and that cases wliere individuals in 

 this country, working upon the im- 

 proved system, for any such length of 

 time as 14 years as a specialty, are 

 very rare, we have reason to look for 

 the development of many more such 

 cases as my dwii. 



Dr. Ballard expresses the desire to 

 doctor my case upon the homceopathic 

 system ; to which I assent, knowing, 

 as I think I do, that the homceopathic 

 treatment possesses that splendid 

 feature over all other schools, that if 

 itdont't cure it <lon't kill. I will here 

 say publicly, what I said by letter to 



him, tliat " faith " will play no part 

 in any possible cure of my case. 



I know that the laws of hygiene 

 point strongly to the claimed base 

 principle of lionueopathy, but I liave 

 always failed to get any effect from 

 homoeopathic remedies, given by pro- 

 fessed thoroughbreds. I can at most 

 consider the science as one only 

 vaguely understood at best. Still its 

 successful operations force all the 

 other schools to step down on a level 

 witli it, to say the least, in all observ- 

 ing and thinking minds. 



Any questions bearing upon the 

 case, will be answered promptly and 

 with pleasure, for I think I may 

 safely say in the name of our frater- 

 nity, that a siiecilic remedy for these 

 symptoms, coming from any school, 

 will put us under many obligations to 

 that school. 



Kur the American Bee Journal. 



Cheap (Jiieeiis, Liglit Bees, etc. 



AARON BENEDICT. 



Several years ago I stuck three 

 stakes to steer to, and as I keep my 

 eyes constantly on them, following 

 up, I find them precisely in range. 

 The lighter-colored and larger the 

 bee, the more docility. I have already 

 proven to my satisfaction that the 

 smaller and blacker the bees, the 

 more vindictive they are. I do not 

 advertise queens for sale in any paper 

 at present, and shall keep right on 

 improving my bees until I get a fixed 

 type— bees that will breed true to the 

 feather. I am conceited enough to 

 believe that when I get a bee to suit 

 me. it will suit most anybody, for I 

 am hard to please with anything like 

 a hybrid or black bee. 



There has been considerable said 

 about the cheap queens of late. 

 Nearly all that advertise such queens 

 do not guarantee tlieir purity. They 

 can send out all the impure queens 

 they rear, such as a careful breeder 

 would behead on sight ; some guaran- 

 tee these queens reared from im- 

 ported mothers only. My experience 

 is to take an average of live imported 

 queens, and it would take a careful 

 breeder five or six years of careful 

 breeding to produce as good as we 

 already have. I put the dollar queen- 

 breeder, and the advocates of dark, 

 leather-colored Italians in about the 

 same class. One sends out all tbe 

 queens he rears, whether pure or im- 

 l>ure. scattering broadcast all grades 

 of bees, and probably not a thorough- 

 bred queen in the whole lot; the other 

 sends out dark, leather-colored queens, 

 and if they produce dark bees, the 

 purchaser gets just what he bargained 

 for. There is another class of breed- 

 ers who make it their steady aim to 

 breed bees as bright-colored as they 

 can, and they have succeeded in pro- 

 ducing wliat appears to be a distinct 

 variety of bees. Such breeders can- 

 not afford to sell queens for a dollar 

 each. I believe tlie time will come 

 when such queens will bring a price 

 somewhere near what It costs to rear 

 them. 



I do not liud fault with dollar queens, 



