THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Ill 



practice very impcwtant consequences. 



Ai)iculturists and naturalists supposed, 

 and suppose yet, that liouey has the same 

 composition as the nectar of the flowers ; 

 and in many European bee-books it is stated 

 that the bees merely feather the honey and 

 deposit it, without alteration, in the cells 

 where it only loses water. In presence of 

 the confusion and contradiction existing at 

 present on the matters gathered and pro- 

 duced by bees, it is necessary in order to ar- 

 rive at a decision, to nuike a chemical and 

 physioloyical statement of the production 

 and composition of honey. In nearly all the 

 flowers in which fecundation is accompanied 

 by the intervention of insects, there are or- 

 gans, named by botanists nectaries, secret- 

 ing a sweet liquid matter, which is generally 

 known as nectar. It is this nectar that bees 

 gather to produce honey. Now we will see 

 that nectar and honey are two distinct things, 

 and of a different composition, and that the 

 bees cause the nectar to undergo a chemical 

 transformation to convert it into honey. 



Mr. Braconnot has chemically analyzed 

 the nectar of more than thirty species of 

 plants of twenty-five dift'erent families, and 

 he has found them to be of about a constant 

 composition. He says that nectar is always 

 identical with itself. It is a colorless and 

 limpid liquid of a density little superior to 

 that of water. It does not contain, in gen- 

 eral, traces of acid, it is a neutral body, and 

 blue and red litmus i^aper is without action 

 on it. He represents the composition of 

 nectar as follows : cane sugar ( or sacchar- 

 ose), l.H; uncrystalizable sugar, 10; water, 

 77— total, 100. 



He has found no trace of mannite nor glu- 

 cose. Now, it will be seen below, that hon- 

 ey contains principally an excess of glucose, 

 some mannite and very little or no cane 

 sugar. Lpwitz was the first, in 17'.>'i, who 

 found out that the sweet crystalizable mat- 

 ter found in honey was not • cane sugar. 

 Proust, in analyzing some candied honey, 

 has shown the identity of this crystalizable 

 sugar with grape sugar, which he had dis- 

 covered in the fruits — glucose. Guilbert has 

 placed in evidence the presence of a large 

 proportion of uncrystalizable sugar to which 

 he gave the name of "sugar of honey." 

 Later, Guibourt has found some mannite in 

 honey : and more recently Soubeiran has 

 had recourse to optical analysis to separate 

 the difl'erent sugars which are found in 

 honey. M. M. Dubrunfaut, Roders and 

 Calloux have completed by their analysis the 

 preceding researches. Mr. Calloux gives the 

 following as the composition of field honey : 

 glucose, 4'>.10 ; uncrystalizable sugar (or 

 mellose), 4::5.!).'5 : water, 7.70 ; waxy matter, 

 l.l.'i : nitrogenous and acid matters, 2.10 — 

 total 100. As honey made on the mountains 

 is a little different, I also give an analysis 

 made of honey taken at 8,600 feet : glucose 

 and cane sugar included, 56 ; uncrystalizable 

 sugar or mellose, 80.4 : water, 8..5 ; mannite, 

 1.9 ; waxy matter, 0.6 : nitrogenous and acid 

 matters, 2.6 — total 100. 



As we see, by the analysis given above, 

 honey is a mixture in variable proportions, 

 of a certain number of definite organic com- 

 pounds. In its most complete state it con- 



tains glucose, uncrystalizable sugar — mel- 

 lose, some water, mannite, cane sugar, an 

 acid, a greasy coloring matter, and some 

 nitrogenous matter which comes from pol- 

 len. I think it would be well to give some 

 of the principal properties of some of the 

 bodies which enter into the composition of 

 honey, and will try to explain as much as 

 possible how the transformations take place. 

 First we have glucose which is a crystalizable 

 sugar : it ordinarily i)resents itself under the 

 form of small, white, compact, agglomer- 

 ated crystals. It is found in grapes and in 

 different fruits. The most economical 

 method of obtaining it is by acting on 

 starch or lignin with diluted sulphuric acid. 

 It is three times less soluble in water than 

 cane sugar, and its solution at equal concen- 

 tration is three times less sweet. 



Mellose or uncrystalized sugar is a liquid 

 sugar which does not crystalize. According 

 to Braconnot the uncrystalizable sugar of 

 nectar is, by its properties, distinct from 

 the uncrystalizable sugar of honey. There- 

 fore it must have undergone an isomeric 

 transformation to produce either mellose or 

 glucose whicii are found in honey. 



Mannite is a body which is naturally found 

 in manna. As it has been ascertained that 

 mannite is a product of the viscous fermenta- 

 tion of complex saccharine mixtures, we see 

 that it is not necessary the bees have gather- 

 ed the natural mannite, but that it might 

 have formed itself subsequently in honey. 

 Mr. Linnermann has obtained mannite by 

 combining hydrogen with glucose. I will 

 mention, nevertheless, that mannite is most 

 generally met with in mountain honey. The 

 presence of a free acid has been ascertained 

 in honey. • It is by the influence of this acid, 

 supposed to be identical with the acid sub- 

 stance found in the bees that the transforma- 

 tion of cane sugar of nectar into mellose 

 and glucose might have been caused. 



It is an established fact that if a diluted 

 acid is made to act upon cane sugar, subse- 

 quently grape sugar is formed. It is natural 

 to suppose that an analogous transformation 

 under the influence of the acid i)rinciple 

 known to exist in the bees, has changed the 

 cane sugar of the nectar into uncrystalizable 

 sugar. It is natural to come to the conclu- 

 sion that the bees gather the nectar from 

 flowers and that this nectar in passing in 

 their body, under the influence of agents not 

 well recognized, undergoes a change and 

 comes out in the state of honey. 



We are well aware that the bee take the 

 nectar from the flowers with its bill and that 

 it is conducted by this organ into the mouth 

 where the tongue pushes it into the a?sopha- 

 gus, which in its turn makes it pass into the 

 stomach. When its stomach is full of nectar 

 the bee returns to the hive and disgorges it 

 into the cell. It is supposable that it is dur- 

 ing this time that the acid of the bee mixes 

 with the nectar and some of the transforma- 

 tion takes place. We have effectively seen 

 above that the composition of honey is es- 

 sentially different from that of nectar. The 

 nectar contains more than half of its sweet 

 matter in a state of cane sugar, while this 

 sugar, when present in honey, is found but 

 in a very small proportion. 



