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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



but he, at least, has the satisfaction of 

 understanding just what is going on. 

 The modern study of diseases seems to 

 put many of them on a similarly com- 

 prehensible footing. Some low form of 

 microscopic, organic life has seized upon 

 the human system, and is trying to use it 

 as nest and food, without regard to the 

 interests of the higher life which is in 

 rightful possession. Meantime the right- 

 ful life is always making more or less of 

 a fight for itself. 



Chills and fevers and spams are not 

 themselves disease. They are efforts 

 the system makes in fighting invisible 

 foes. And the invisible foes constitute 

 the disease. Pretty much the whole 

 problem of medicine seems to be reduced 

 to this: To help the rightful life as 

 much as possible in its fight, and hinder 

 the interloping lower life as much as 

 possible in its fight. This line, along 

 which man has just begun to think and 

 act, is a line that nature and develop- 

 ment have been acting upon for thou- 

 sands of years. 



Now, various things tend to show that 

 bees, in their world history, have had a 

 specially hard struggle against micro- 

 scopic germs, and have developed special 

 defenses against them. Apparently the 

 glandular system, which is so prominent 

 in the anatomy of the bee's head and 

 thorax, is to furnish secretions to mingle 

 with the honey ; and this pouring in of 

 secretions, whereby finished honey is 

 made, is for the purpose of making the 

 honey hostile to, and proof against, the 

 lower forms of life. 



To poison your enemy and not quite 

 poison yourself, is nature's grand pro- 

 tective game. In the case of honey the 

 game is almost overdone. Probably 

 honey never gives the bees themselves 

 the stomach-ache ; but when mankind 

 comes to eat it, quite a proportion of 

 them find it doctored up so strongly that 

 they cannot bear it. 



We are asking, then, whether in an 

 age that has accepted antiseptic surgery 

 and antiseptic medicine, we may not 

 profitably make more extensive use of 

 antiseptic food. Most foods are much 

 changed in digestion, but honey scarcely 

 at all. In fact, it is said that if honey is 

 injected directly into the veins, nature 

 lets most of it be, instead of throwing 

 it out as would be done with other sub- 

 stances. 



Now, these hints and facts are not 

 proofs of the matter we are pursuing ; 

 but they are encouragement for our sus- 

 picio7is, and permission to look and see 

 if we so desire. If a honey diet is an 

 effective and practical help in nature's 



warfare against hostile germs, that is 

 the same thing as saying that it is a help 

 in nature's warfare against disease ; and 

 what beats off disease, prolongs life. 



In this connection we may well re- 

 member that it is a very rare thing for 

 an insect to live over one year. Yet the 

 queen-bee lives three or four years — in 

 some rare instances perhaps as many as 

 seven. It seems reasonable to suppose 

 that the secret of her longevity is that 

 she feeds entirely on food that has been 

 made antiseptic by secretions from the 

 glands of worker bees, while other in- 

 dividuals of the colony have suffered all 

 the risks and wear and tear of the prep- 

 aration. If antiseptic food prolongs 

 life for a queen-bee, why may it not pro- 

 long life for a man ? 



Now, as to the mode of settling the 

 question, in case it shall ever come to be 

 considered important enough to be worth 

 settling. Let some college be chosen 

 that has a large number of students. 

 The University of Michigan would be 

 excellent; or, perhaps, Oberlin would do. 



Let one of our experiment stations 

 select a suitable student, who needs a 

 little addition to his purse, appoint him 

 an assistant, and intrust him with the 

 clerical part of the work. Let this 

 student enroll a hundred young persons, 

 say young men between the ages of 17 

 and 20, who like honey, and will take a 

 little extra pains to use it freely. If 

 practicable, they should be induced to 

 eat from one to three ounces nearly 

 every day. 



Then let another hundred be enrolled, 

 as nearly similar as possible in other re- 

 spects, who are to avoid eating honey at. 

 all. Both classes are to report to the 

 roll-keeper at the end of the year how 

 many days of sickness they have had. 

 Each individual, also, is to keep some 

 person instructed to report his death 

 when it occurs. When the time comes 

 for the roll-keeper to leave the college, 

 the experiment station shall appoint 

 some other suitable student in his place. 



Thus, it seems to me, the routine part 

 of the experiment would run smoothly, 

 and with very moderate expense. 

 Results would come in something like 

 this : When the first deaths occurred, it 

 would be more a matter of accident than 

 otherwise which class they fell in ; but 

 after the first dozen years or so, if there 

 is a difference it should gradually come 

 to the front. Meantime, if there is really 

 an important difference in favor of 

 honey-eating, the number of days of 

 sickness during the year in the two dif- 

 ferent classes should begin to show itself 

 within the first three years. 



