POISONOUS HONEY. 33 



tially affected. Its poisonous character cannot be ascertained 

 either by the appearance of the honey or by its taste, and it is 

 experience only that determines the point. The hunters, we are 

 told, first use it in small quantities, and if no unfavourable symp- 

 toms occur, they eat it as they would any other honey. Dr. 

 Mason Good, in referring to that which is deleterious, says that 

 at first it occasions a dimness of sight or vertigo, succeeded by 

 a delirium, which is sometimes mild and pleasant, and sometimes 

 ferocious ; ebriety, pain in the stomach and intestines, convul- 

 sions, profuse perspiration, foaming at the mouth, vomiting and 

 purging, and in a few instances death. In some persons a vomit- 

 ing is the first effect. Sometimes the honey has been observed to 

 produce a temporary palsy of the limbs, an effect which we have 

 remarked in animals that have eaten of one of those very vege- 

 tables from whose flowers the bees obtain a pernicious honey. It 

 is, however, very seldom fatal, the disorders it occasions generally 

 working their own cure, either by occasioning vomiting, purging, 

 or profuse perspiration, the two former of which relieve the pain 

 in the intestines, and the latter, the fever. 



In comparing the account furnished by American writers with 

 the short but graphic description given by Xenophon in his Ana- 

 basis, it would seem that the honey on the shores of the Black 

 Sea is very similar to that occasionally found in America. And 

 it is somewhat remarkable that the evil appears the result of the 

 same cause, viz., the pre\alence of flowers belonging to certain 

 genera of the same natural family While, therefore, some 

 natural families are decidedly favourable, as we have seen in the 

 influence exerted by the labiates in Mount Hybla, and I might add 

 Narbonne, where Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is said to im- 

 part a delicious flavour to the honey, there are others which con- 

 tain species that render honey not only unpalatable, but poison- 

 ous. Virgil, we have seen, denounces the Taxus, but I can 

 scarcely think the Yew can be intended, as in many parts of 

 England where Yew trees abound, poisonous honey is unknown. 



Before I conclude these brief, and I fear unsatisfactory re- 

 marks, I must express my thanks to Dr. Bell for having called 

 my attention to a very interesting subject, and I trust that his 

 instructive papers may be the means of inducing many persons 

 to study more attentively than hitherto the habits of bees, and 



