I'HE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



261 



the honey season V 3. Perhaps never. 

 If I wanted to throw away the old 

 combs, I would drive the bees about 

 May 1 into new hives fllled with foun- 

 dation,like we used to drive them into 

 empty hives 30 years ago.— G. W. 

 Demaree. 



If you must use " wired frames," 

 you should put the new hive on the 

 old one, but the bees will be slow to 



§0 up there until they have Biled up 

 elow. Would it not save time and 

 trouble to transfer them during fruit 

 bloom, and save all the combs that 

 are worth saving ?— The Editor. 



Spring Management Of Bees, 



Query 41 1.— My hives last fall, when put 

 Into winter quarters, were full ot honey, and I left 

 all the frames in them. The combs at the sides of 

 the hives now {March 12) are still full of honey. 

 Would it be better to leave Iheni in, or take out 

 one or two on each side, and put in division- 

 boards, or put in frames of foundation in their 

 place?— Kankakee, His, 



Leave the combs of honey as they 

 are by all means.— G. L. Tinker. 



Let them alone where they are. — 

 James Heddon. 



I should leave them in, in this 

 locality.— G. M. Doolittlb. 



Take out and crowd by use of the 

 division-board. This is the sovereign 

 remedy against spring dwindling.— 

 A. J. Cook. 



For cold climates, take out extra 

 combs and make the hive snug and 

 warm.— C. W. Dayton. 



Most likely your bees will need that 

 honey before the clover crop. But if 

 they really have too much, it had 

 better be taken out.— Dadant & Son. 



I do not know how many frames 

 are in your hives, but I think it a fine 

 thing to have full combs of honey in 

 a hive on March 12.— C. C. Miller. 



Much depends. If there are center 

 frames without brood, remove them, 

 and replace with the full ones, put- 

 ting " dummies " on the sides of the 

 hives. Contract to as few frames as 

 the bees can cover, and feed if neces- 

 sary. Do not remove brood in any 

 <a8e.— J. E. Pond. 



A solid frame of honey is the best 

 dirision-board ever made. For all 

 practical purposes, if the colonies are 

 strong in bees, leave them as they are. 

 — H. D. Cutting. 



If there is more honey in the hive 

 than the bees will use, it is just so 

 much dead capital ; if you can make 

 any use of it, take it out and put in 

 division-boards or "dummies." Do 

 not put in frames of foundation, as 

 they will be filled with honey in very 

 poor shape for market, unless ex- 

 tracted ; and then it is more conven- 

 ient to have the surplus stored in an 

 upper story. Why use hives so large? 

 — W. Z. Hutchinson. 



I would leave the honey where it is. 

 If the queen needs the room below to 

 enlarge her brood-nest, the workers 

 will carry the honey above. This is 

 one of my objections to sugar feeding, 

 and a very serious one. When my 

 brood-chambers are full of honey ex- 

 cept the room occupied by the queen 



for her brood, I am sure of the sur- 

 plus being conveyed to the surplus 

 department. In other words, a hive 

 full of brood and sealed honey is 

 " contracted " to as good effect as if 

 division-boards occupied the place of 

 the sealed honey, and with this ad- 

 vantage the bees do not have to be fed 

 at the close of the season at a loss of 

 bees and stores.— G. W. Demaree. 



You risk nothing by leaving the 

 frames of honey in the hives until 

 honey is being gathered ; then if 

 there is too much for immediate use, 

 remove it.— The Editor. 



This mark Indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near the center of the State named ; 

 5 north of the center; 9 south; O* east; 

 •O west; and this 6 northeast ; "O northwest: 

 t>» southeast; and P southwest of the center 

 of the State mentioned. 



For cue Amenoan See Journal. 



The Medicinal Properties of Honey, 



G. P. hachenberg, si. d. 



Since the publication of my article 

 on the " Medical Properties of 

 Honey," in the American Bee Jour- 

 nal for April 26, 1886, I have re- 

 ceived several letters asking for 

 further information. The subject 

 appears to have received special at- 

 tention, by the profession in particular. 



D. C. Spencer, M. D., of Augusta. 

 Wis., makes this request : " Will 

 you please to give, in the American 

 Bee Journal, a list of authorities 

 for the positions taken in your arti- 

 cle, and also state how much and 

 what parts were from original obser- 

 vations, and what were your data on 

 which thes* were based ?" 



I reply with pleasure, and hope 

 what I may be able to say in answer 

 to the questions on the subject will 

 proTe satisfactory. 



The general recognition of hon«y in 

 the pharmacopoeias shows its high 

 officinal position. The United States 

 Dispensatory necessarily had to re- 

 ceive it as an officinal remedy, but un- 

 fortunately blotched it with a great 

 error. It says : " Honey possesses 

 the same medical properties with 

 sugar, but is more disposed to run off 

 by the bowels, and to occasion grip- 

 ing pain." What an unhappy con- 

 tradiction by so high an authority ! 

 The deleterious effects referred to 

 show at once that honey is something 

 more than sugar. It may safely be 

 assumed that all remedies that betray 

 an untoward effect on the system, 

 may be turned to a medicinal advan- 

 tage. This explains why some of the 

 most powerful " poisons " may serve 

 us as the most efficient means to sub- 

 due disease. A tisane is no medicine 

 — it may serve as a nutritive ; but it 

 is soon subverted by physiological 

 operations ; where, on the other 



hand, it is the medicine that controls 

 these operations. 



There is another reason for regard- 

 ing honey as something more than 

 sugar. If the two were isomorphous, 

 although identity of composition by 

 no means implies identity of charac- 

 ter, we would be less inclined to as- 

 sail our august authority, but honey 

 has one more equivalent of oxygen 

 than has sugar, as established by 

 Praut, Gay Lussac and Thenard; 

 therefore the two are not alike to 

 produce the same physiological effect. 

 According to Draper, we have specific 

 chemical tests to distinguish one 

 from the other. Leibig's analysis of 

 honey and sugar stands as follows : 



Carbon. Hydrogen. Oxygen. 



Honey 36.36 7.09 56.55 



Sugar 42.30 6.38 51.31 



The chemists named, previously 

 render the oxygen in sugar only about 

 50.00, giving still a greater excess of 

 it to honey. I have no doubt, that on 

 the law of chemical affinity, if the 

 analysis could with strict accuracy 

 be made, it would amount to one 

 whole equivalent 8.013. 



Honey has two specific effects in its 

 route through the system in which it 

 differs from other saccharine sub- 

 stances. The mellic acid in the 

 honey (it is evidently this acid which 

 is referred to in the American Cyclo- 

 pedia on the subject of honey), is an 

 irritant, often distinctly felt in the 

 throat after eating it. It is not 

 always of uniform proportion in the 

 honey. It has its beneficial function 

 to perform, but when in excess, it 

 poisons the honey, and like the Trebi- 

 zond honey, may be dangerous to use. 

 I know that poisonous honey is sup- 

 posed to be derived from poisonous 

 flowers, but of this I have my doubts. 

 When honey is taken in the stomach, 

 the mellic acid unites with the gastric 

 acids and will excite and favor diges- 

 tion. Especially advantageous, too, 

 are its antiseptic properties, which, 

 being more positive than sugar, tend 

 little to gastric fermentation. 



It is well enough to observe in cases 

 of dyspepsia and idiosyncrasy, where 

 the mellic acid does not receive the 

 co-operation of the gastric acids to 

 favor digestion, it may develop a 

 strong, untoward effect, even to cause 

 sickness. But such cases are not 

 common, and upon the whole, honey 

 is a wholesome diet, a good, mild 

 medicine, and even a potent prophy- 

 lactic of diseases. But the most im- 

 portant physiological action of honey 

 in passing through the system, is its 

 election for the liver, on which organ 

 it expends the whole of its glucose 

 material. Starch and sugar follow 

 the same route, but only by means of 

 a highly complicated operation. In 

 the glycogenic process of the liver on 

 honey, no special reconstruction is 

 needed as is the case with starch and 

 sugar. The latter have first to be 

 converted into glucose, much like 

 that of honey, before its assimulation 

 in the liver. It is self-evident that 

 this economy of labor on the part of 

 the liver on honey, makes it an excel- 

 lent hepatic with laxative and diuretic 

 effects. There is perhaps no other 



