SUGAR, MOLASSES, CONFECTIONS, AND HONEY 749 



sirnp of a deep orange color, smelling like eucalyptus oil. Analysis by Cb. Heri- 

 son gave 



Sugar (mostly levnlose; 01. 16 



Asb 18 



Moisture 21.66 



Active principles (eucalyptol, encalyptene, cymol, etc) 17. 10 



100. 00 



Eotatory power, 22 [direction not given] ; sp. g., 1.44. 



Doubt was at the time expressed that a honey gathered from the blossoms should 

 contain principles peculiar to the leaf of the eucalyptus, and in Australia there was 

 an opinion that eucalyptus honey w;is a mixture of ordinary honey and eucalyptus 

 oil. Prof. T. P. A. Stuart (University of Sydney, New South Wales) investigated the 

 matter and found that, while honey was really collected from eucalypti, such stu- 

 pendous hives had not been heard of. The native bee (Trigona carbonaria) collects 

 not above an average of 5 pounds of honey per hive. The comb presents an inter- 

 laced looking structure, not resembling the hexagonal structure of comb made by our 

 hive bees. Analysis gave : 



Water 13.63 



Levnlose, dextrose, etc 78. 98 



Cane sugar 0. 00 



Wax, pollen, and inorganic matter 2. 15 



Ash 31 



Undetermined 4. 93 



100. 00 



The specimen was clear, homogeneous, dark red, and semifluid. No trace of es- 

 sential oil, terpene, rosin, or similar substances could be found. 



DATE HONEY (DATE SIRUP).* 



Date honey was on exhibition at the last Parisian World's Fair among the pro- 

 ductions of Algeria. In Algeria it is used largely for medicinal purposes, mostly as 

 a specific for pulmonary troubles. It has an unpleasant smell and taste, the latter at 

 first reminding one of "syrnpus Hollaudicus," afterwards of the date. The usual 

 aroma of honey is absent. The color is brownish yellow. On long keeping it grad- 

 ually candies. It feebly reddens blue litmus. In a 1 to 2 solution it rotates the 

 polarized ray 20 to the left. It contains traces of dextrin ; chlorine in tolerable 

 quantity, 0.95 per cent (calculated as NaCl, 1.53 per cent); sulphuric acid, 0.19 per 

 cent. The product though called "date honey " appears to be the exuded sap of the 

 date tree and is therefore a sirup, and not a honey. 



POISONOUS HONEY, t 



That the poisonous honey which Xenophon mentions in his Anabasis is collected 

 by bees from the blossoms of the Rhododendron ponticum or the Azalea pontica was 

 pretty generally recognized even before the poisonous ingredient of this plant was 

 known. Plugge has demonstrated from investigation with honey collected from these 

 flowers that the honey is really poisonous and that its poisonous qu ility is due to 

 anclromedotoxin. 



* Karl Gaab, Chem. Zeit., Jan. 28, 1891, p. 118. 



t P. C. Plugge. Arch. Pharin., 1891, 229, 554; abs. Chem. Zeit., 1891, No. 28, 310. 



