December 3, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



539 



headed " Levulose Sirup," which contained 

 on© statement that I believe should be cor- 

 rected. He states that of the four sugar 

 products, glucose, sorghiun, honey and maltose, 

 "sorghum and honey are the only ones that 

 compete with sugar in sweetness," and farther 

 on in the article adds " of the two sweeter 

 products, honey will probably of necessity al- 

 ways remain a luxury." It is this last state- 

 ment to which I take exception. 



Honey should not be considered a luxury. 

 It is the form of sweet that was used long 

 before cane sugar was ever thought of, and is 

 in many places now a staple article of food. 

 During the sugar shortage caused by the late 

 war honey was used to a much greater extent 

 than ever before in this country and thou- 

 sands of families used honey almost exclu- 

 sively in place of sugar. In addition, mil- 

 lions of pounds were exported. One reason 

 that honey is often considered a luxury is be- 

 cause it is too frequently bought in such 

 small quantities that the purchaser is paying 

 far more for the container and the labor of 

 putting the honey up in such form than he is 

 for the honey itself. The writer knows a 

 number of families who buy extracted honey 

 regularly in 60 pound lots and consider it a 

 staple article of food rather than a luxury. 



Enormous quantities of honey are used in 

 baking in this country, both for home baking 

 and by commercial baking firms, since honey 

 possesses a number of advantages over sugar 

 in baking. It is stated that the National 

 Biscuit Company at one time bought seventy 

 carloads of honey in one lot. Honey is also 

 extensively used in the making of fine candies, 

 high-grade ice cream and soft drinks. 



It is a conmiendable thing to point out as 

 Mr. Willaman has done, how a new industry 

 may be developed, especially when the product 

 of such industry is to be a food, yet it is un- 

 just in pointing out such a possibility to 

 make a statement which tends to foster a 

 mistaken idea, entirely too prevalent already, 

 about another food product, an idea that the 

 beekeeping industry and all its sponsors are 

 trying to eradicate. The beekeeping indus- 



try in this country is annually conserving 

 millions upon millions of pounds of one of 

 the finest food products existent that would 

 otherwise be absolutely lost. Yet many times 

 the amount saved is actually lost because this 

 industry is not developed to such an extent 

 as to take care of more than a small percent- 

 age of the possibilities. The complete devel- 

 opment of this industry can come only when 

 the people as a whole recognize honey as a 

 staple article of food rather than as a luxury. 



M. 0. Tanquary 

 College Station, Texas 



the flight of fireflies and the flash- 

 ING IMPULSE 



Fireflies are wonderfully interesting crea- 

 tures. There is something marvellous in the 

 physiology of a lowly living mechanism that 

 can transform chemical energy into luminous 

 energy with such a nearly perfect radiant effi- 

 ciency and with so little effort as do the fire- 

 flies. Theirs is a light without appreciable 

 heating effects, because in some manner the 

 energy of special chemical reactions taking 

 place within their tissues, is transformed al- 

 most entirely into luminous energy. 



If one observes fireflies^ closely it will be 

 noted that their flight movements and flashing 

 under certain conditions bear some relation to 

 each other. During the day these insects seek 

 concealment in the low herbage and grass. 

 With the approach of evening they become ac- 

 tive and just after sundown may be seen to 

 arise in great numbers from the damp herbage, 

 flashing leisurely from time to time. K the 

 air is still and warm, it will be noted that as 

 the creatures arise very slowly, each flash is 

 attended by a sudden upward flight impulse 

 which may even carry them almost straight 

 upward several feet. Usually, however, they 

 are propelled upward in a more or less curved 

 path. 



, At this time the flight of the fireflies ap- 

 pears to be very weak, for they drift along 

 aimlessly, and appear almost unable to keep 

 clear of the herbage, often actually descending 



1 These observations apply to the behavior of 

 the species Fhotimis pyralis Linn. 



