THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



69 



Beautiful Flowers. 



S. W. DtrPFIELD. 



Ye are the eyes of the world. 



With which the spirit divine 

 Looks, from a thousand nooits. 



Full into mine ! 



Ye are the breatli of the world. 



With which the spirit divine 

 Breathes, through these fragrant wreaths, 



A perfume tine. 



Come from the ends of the world. 



Ye lio wera in waves of light ! 

 Brealc on the souls that ache 



ThrouRh alt the night. 



Kor the American Bee JournaL 



The Carbonic Acid Oas Question. 



S. COKNEIL. 



The direction taken by the carbonic 

 aciJ produced by the respiration of a 

 cluster of bees is often a leading sub- 

 ject for discussion at bee-keepers' con- 

 ventions. A large majority of those 

 taking part in such discussions seem 

 to be of the opinion ttiat because the 

 specific gravity of this gas is about 

 one-and-a-half times that of atmos- 

 pheric air, it falls to the bottom and 

 accumulates or runs out at the lowest 

 'aperture, like so much mercury or 

 water, some going so far as to assume 

 that they can run it off from the cel- 

 lar through the drain or ventilating 

 pipe, while at the same time a cur- 

 rent of pure air Hows in the opposite 

 direction. We are further told that 

 it is necessary to raise our hives at 

 least 10 inches to keep the bees out of 

 the stratum of this gas, which will 

 accumulate at the floor before spring. 

 On the other hand a few bee-keepers, 

 amongst whom 1 recollect the names 

 of Dr. Southwick and F. II. Elwood, 

 hold that this gas does not fall to the 

 bottom, but tliat it is uniforaily dif- 

 fused through tlie air of the hive or 

 repository. ""The detection of this 

 gas , and an exact determination of 

 the amount of it contained in air, re- 

 quire skill, careful attention, and in- 

 struments and materials of analysis 

 of much perfection." Fortunately, 

 it is not necessary for bee-keepers to 

 make original inquiries to decide 

 whether it accumulates at the floor or 

 becomes diffused through the apart- 

 ment, because very careful experi- 

 ments have already been made by 

 some of the most prominent scientists 

 ■of the present age, and the results of 

 their investigations are such as to 

 leave no ditliculty in finding out the 

 direction taken by the carbonic acid 

 evolved by respii'ation. 



The quantity of carbonic acid in 

 air, " as pure as it blows on the hill 

 tops," is on an average about 4 vol- 

 umes in 10.000. The standard for 

 ?:ood ventilation, fixed l)y the late Dr. 

 'arkes, is that the ratio of carbonic 

 acid shall not exceed 6 volumes in 

 30,000. The air exhaled contains one 



hundred times the natural quantity. 

 In the following table, it will be no- 

 ticed that the proportion of carbonic 

 acid is in most c;ises excessive. The 

 variations at floor and ceiling are 

 likely caused by currents of cooler 

 air from outside. 



TABLE OF .VNALYSES FOB THE DETERMI- 

 NATION OF CAKBONIC ACID. 



The following quotations are also 

 to the point : 



"Carbonic acid is so heavy that 

 when quite pure, it can be poured 

 like water from vessel to vessel, and 

 yet, if a vessel of it is left open to the 

 air, it will soon pass off and disap- 

 pear. This is very important to ns, 

 otherwise the amount of this heavy 

 gas produced would make the con- 

 tinuance of life impossible." — Harts- 

 home, in " Our Homes." 



Dr. Mattson, author of '• Facts for 

 the People Concerning Health," says : 



" This carbonic acid being heavier 

 than common air, it is often supposed 

 that it is precipitated to tlie floor as 

 fast as it escapes from the lungs dur- 

 ing the process of resiiiration. It 

 would be unfortunate if tins were 

 true. Nature has proviiled against 

 this difficulty through the well-known 

 law which regulates the diffusion of 

 gases." 



" It is conceived by some that the 

 carbonic acid of the breath, from its 

 greater weight, must be chiefly at the 

 bottom of the room, but this is a mis- 

 take. The heated breath ascends in- 

 stantly, because it is, as a whole, 

 lighter than the air around it, and 

 the carbonic acid in it does not tend to 

 separate from it and fall down by its 

 own superior weight, but by the law of 



the diffusion of gases seeks to spread 

 itself equally all over the room, and 

 would do so though it were lying at 

 first on the Roor.^'— Chambers' JSncy- 

 clonmdid. 



Dr. VVetherill, speaking of Loppens' 

 experiments upon tlie air of uuventi- 

 lated rooms, says : 



"These experiments, like those of 

 Lassaigne and others, establish the 

 fact that the carbonic acid of an un- 

 ventiiated room, is uniformly diffused 

 therein, the slight difference being iu 

 favor of the ceiling, and not of the 

 floor, as was formerly iguorantly as- 

 sumed from the superior specific 

 weight of this gas." 



The following very important state- 

 ment is taken from the final report of 

 a board of United States officers, con- 

 vened by request of a special com- 

 mittee, on the ventilation of the Cap- 

 itol at Washington. Great weight 

 attaches to it, because they had placed 

 before them all that could be said in 

 favor of the downward theory, and 

 had fully considered the question in 

 all its bearings. 



" This carbonic acid gas, like all 

 other gaseous impurities derived 

 from respiration, is present in about 

 the same proportion at all heights iu 

 the room, the percentage being nearly 

 the same in samples of air taken from 

 the top and from the bottom in ordi- 

 nary apartments. In the hall the car- 

 bonic acid is slightly in excess at the 

 top. It is a gross error to suppose 

 that this gas falls to the floor of the 

 Louse, for, although when pure, it is 

 heavier than atmospheric air of the 

 same temperature ; yet air expired 

 from the lungs, is higher than the 

 surrounding air at ordinary tempera- 

 tures, and the law of the diffusion of 

 gases effectually prevents any sep- 

 aration." 



The report is signed as follows : 

 Josepli Henry, Secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, President of the 

 Board ;Thos. l.,incoln Casey, Lieut. 

 Col. Corps of Engineers, JVIember of 

 the Hoard ; Edward Clark, Member of 

 the Board ; F. Schumann, Civil En- 

 gineer, Member of the Board ; and J. 

 S. Billings, Surgeon U. S. Army, Sec- 

 retary of the Board. 



I trust the foregoing will be of some 

 assistance to our friends in deciding 

 for themselves what becomes of the 

 carbonic acid. I propose having 

 something further to say on the other 

 principal product of respiration, 

 aqueous vapor, at a future time. 



Lindsay, Jan. 25, 18S3. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Catnip as a Honey Plant. 



T. KLLICOTT. 



I believe little is known as to the 

 amount of honey liees get from it, 

 and it is not strange that it is so, 

 when one thinks of the quantity 

 growing, and the number of bees to 

 work oh it. I think it is never neg- 

 lected (while in blossom) by tlie bees; 

 at least, I never have see'n it when 

 bees did not visit it from mm-ning 

 until night. The amount grovving is 

 far less than one would suppose. Let 



