Vol. XI. 



OCT. 15, 1883. 



No. 10. 



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VIRGIIi'S TREATISE 0\ BEES. 



DISEASES OF BEES. (1) 



If with some sad disease their bodies waste 

 (Since of our ills life gives it them to taste), 

 The same by signs not doubtful one may know, 

 For soon the sick an altered color show. (3) 

 Disease deforms their looks with bristly hair; (.3) 

 Then from their dwellings forth anon they bear 

 Those bodies whence the light of life has fled, 

 And lead the sad processions of the dead ; (4) 

 Or feet to feet they close together cling, 

 And from their dwelling's threshold idly swing; (5) 

 Or in their inmost shrines they linger all. 

 Sluggish with hunger, and in torpid ball 

 Condensed and cold: (6) then deeper sound is heard 

 Than e'er is wont when healthy bees are stirred; (7) 

 They murmur lightly with a drawling wheeze, 

 As sometimes cool south wind among the trees; 

 Or as the sea its watery bosom laves. 

 And troubled hisses with reflowing waves; 

 Or as fierce fire, inclosed in furnace walls, 

 A trembling sigh with smothered fervor drawls. (8) 



REMEDIES FOB DISEASE. 



Here I advise sweet galbanum to burn. 



And honey through a pipe of reed to turn, (9) 



Rousing them well, moreover, lest in vain 



Thy help be proffered to the sluggish train. 



And loudly calling, in an urgent mood. 



Their sleepy senses to the well-known food. (10) 



To mix with feed it may be well to try 



A little powdered galls, and roses dry; (11) 



Or grape molasses use, well simmered down; 



Or wine, from the vine's bunches dry and brown, 



With thyme that loveth the Athenian dells. 



And centaur-plant that very strongly smells. 



And there's a flower that in the meadows grows, 



Amellus, for a name, the serf bestows. 



An herb by those that seek it easy told; 



It springs a thicket from the turfy mold, 



Golden itself, but in its leaves around. 



With which in great abundance it is crowned, 



The lurking hue of purple richly glows, 



A purple dark as oft the violet shows; 



And with its wreaths, in deft profusion flecked, 



Often the altars of the God's are decked; 



Acrid in flavor to the mouth it seems; 



This shepherds gather by the bending streams 



Of Mella, and adown its pastured vales; 



Simmer in wine, which fragrance sweet exhales, 



The roots of this, and place their doorways by 



Full canisters of food for their supply. (13) 



(1) Virgil is hardly at his best in this passage. 

 Starvation, exhausted queen, constitutional debility, 

 spring dwindling, dysentery, and we know not what 

 else, seem to be jumbled all together, and an equal- 

 ly miscellaneous lot of remedies given for the batch ; 

 to wit, fumigation with galbanum, feeding pure 

 honey, feeding honey mixed with powdered nut- 

 galls and roses, feeding grape molasses, feeding 

 fluid extract of thyme and centaurea in raisin wine, 

 and feeding sweet wine in which amellus roots have 

 been simmered. At the worst, however, these are 

 harmless remedies; and if applied to a case which is 

 curable by stimulation, some of them may be quite 

 useful. His head is level on one thing: feeding pure 

 honey will cure starvation. Moreover, it's plain 

 that his idea of medical practice was to have the 



