AprU 20, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL O^' HOKTlOUliXURE AND GOTTAQS GARDENER, 



297 



upon the hive canses them to thrast ont their stings, and thus to bedew 

 the combs with their poison, so that every distnrbing inflneuce causes 

 an effusion of more or less poison, even when the honey is not, at the 

 time of this disturbance, taken from the hive. This poison, adhering 

 to and drying upon the honeycomb, will, for a very considerable time, 

 be active in its effects.* It is a well-known fact that some persons 

 cannot eat even a very little honey without distressing colic pains ; 

 and I have repeatedly demonstrated that if the honey is boiled, or 

 brought nearly to the boiling-point, snch persons can eat it with im- 

 punity, while they can^iot eat safely a small quantity of loaf sugar in 

 which some of this bee-poison has been put. As the b6e-poison+ is very 

 volatile, slightly boiling the honey seems to dissipate it entirely. 



The fact that there is almost always more or less bee poison in the 

 honey of commerce, and that many of the peculiar symptoms caused 

 by eating honey are attributable to this poison, opens a new source of 

 inquiry to the medical world ; and they can now use the vast stores of 

 facts and opinions as to the medical virtues of honey, furnished by 

 Aristotle, Hippocrates, | Galen, Pliny, and a host of old and medical 

 authors. 



It is obvious from these remarks, that the remarkable effects claimed 

 by the homoeopathists to be produced upon the human system by the 

 bee poison, and which they have regarded as quite a recent discovery, 

 may be traced back almost to the remotest antiquity, and found to have 

 equally important relations to the old schools of medicine. 



Schuckard, in his recent work on "British Bees," says: "The 

 earliest manuscript extant, which is the medical papyrus, now in the 

 Eoyal collection at Berlin, and of which Brugsch has given a fac-simile 

 and a translation, dates from the nineteenth or twentieth Egyptian 

 dynasty, accordingly from the reign of Eamses £1., and goes laack to 

 the fourteenth century before our era. But a portion of this papyrus 

 indicates a much higher antiquity, extending as far back as the period 

 of the sovereigns who built the pyramids, consequently to the very 

 earliest period of the history of the world. 



" It was one of the medical treatises contained within the temple of 

 Ptah, at Memphis, and which the Egyptian physicians were required 

 to use in the praotice of their profession, and if they neglected such 

 use they became responsible for the death of such patients who suc- 

 cumbed under their treatment, it being attributed to their contravening 

 the sacred ■prescriptions. This pharmaeopisia enumerates amongst its 

 many ingredients honey, wine, and milk ; we have thus extremely 

 early positive evidence of the cultivation of bees. That they had 

 been domesticated for use in those remote times is further shown by 

 the fact mentioned by Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, of a hive being repre- 

 sented upon an ancient tomb at Thebes. 



" It may have been in consequence of some traditional knowledge of 

 the ancient medical practice of the Egyptians, that Mahomet, in his 

 Koran, prescribes honey as a medicine. One of the Suras, or chapters, 

 of that work is entitled ' The Bee,' and in which Mahomet says : — 

 ' The Lord spake by inspiration unto the bee, saying : Provide thee 

 houses in the mountains and in the trees [clearly signifying the cavities 

 in the rocks and hollows of trees, wherein the bees construct their 

 combs], and of those materials wherewith men build hives for thee ; 

 then eat of every kind of fruit, and walk in the beaten paths of thy 

 Lord.' There proceedeth from their bellies a liquor, wherein is a 

 medicine for men. Verily herein is a sign unto people who consider. 



" It is remarkable that the bee is the only creature that Mahomet 

 assumes the Almighty to have directly addressed. Al-Beidawi, the , 

 Arabian commentator upon the Koran, whose authority ranks very i 

 high, in notes upon passages of the preceding extracts, says, ' The 

 houses alluded to aro the combs, whose beautiful workmanship and 

 admirable contrivance no geometrician can excel.' The ' beaten paths 

 of thy Lord,' he says, ' are the ways through which, by God's power, 

 the bitter flowers passing the bee's stomach, become honey ; or, the 

 methods of making honey he has taught her by instinct, or else the 

 ready way home from the distant places to which that insect flies.' 

 The liquor proceeding from their bellies, Al-Beidawi says, ' is tha 

 honey, the colour of which is very different, occasioned by the different 

 plants on which the bees feed ; some being white, some yellow, some 

 red, and some black.' He appends a note to where Mahomet says, 

 * therein is a medicine for man,' which contains a curious anecdote. 

 The note says, ' The same being not only good for food, but a useful 

 remedy in several distempers.' There is a story that a man once 

 came to Mahomet, and told him his brother was afflicted with a violent 

 pain in his belly; upon which the ^jrophet bade him give him some 

 honey. The fellow took his advice ; but soon after, coming again, 

 told him that the medicine had done his brother no manner of service. 

 Mahomet answers, ' Go and give him more honey, for God speaks 

 truth, and thy brother's belly lies.' And the dose being repeated, the 

 man, by God's mercy, was immediately cured." 

 Butler, in his " Feminine Monarchy," speaks as follows : — 

 " Honey is hot and dry in the second degree ; it is of subtle parts, and 



♦ Those using the Hruschkaor centrifuiral machine for emptyinghoney 

 from the combs— so numed after its inventor Major Hruschka— should be 

 careful to heat nearly to the boiling point all HrU'^chkaed honey, to be sure 

 that the poison of the bee has been effectually expelled from it. This is 

 the more necessary, as the process of removing for emptying is more 

 likely to excite the bees than the simple removal of the honey in boxes. 



+ I much prefer this good old Anglo-Saxon term to Apis mellifica, the 

 name given to it by the homceopathists, but which is the proper scientific 

 name of the honey bee itself, i Born 4S0 years before Christ. 



therefore does not pierce as oil, and easily passes into the body. It has 

 a power to cleanse, and some sharpness withal, and therefore it openeth 

 obstructions ; it cleareth the breast and lights of those humours which 

 fall from the head to those parts ; looseth the belly, and purgeth the 

 foulness of the body, and provoketh urine ; it cutteth and casteth up 

 phlegmatic matter, and therefore sharpeneth the stomachs of them 

 which by reason thereof have little appetite ; it purgeth those things 

 which hurt the clearness of the eyes ; it nourisheth very much ; it 

 hreedeth good blood ; it stirreth up and preserveth natural heat, and 

 prolongeth old age ; it keepeth all things uncorrupt, which are put 

 into it, and therefore physicians do temper therewith such medicines 

 as they mean to keep long ; yea, the bodies of the dead being embalmed 

 with honey, ha^e been thereby preserved from putrefaction. It is a 

 sovereign medicament for outward and inward maladies. It helpeth 

 the griefs of the jaws, the kernels growing mthin the mouth, and the 

 squinanci or intlammat;on of the muscle of the inner gargil, for which 

 purpose it is gargarised and the mouth washed with it. It is drunk 

 against the biting of a serpent All which premises being con- 

 sidered no marvel though the wise king said, ' My son eat honey, for rfc 

 is good.' .... Yea, honey, if it be pure and fine, is so good in itself, 

 that it must needs be good even for them whose queasy stomachs are 

 against it." 



Butler refers to Aristotle, Galen, Pliny, and a number of old writers. 

 Having no time now to examine what all these old and modern writers 

 have said on the virtues of honey, and to show in how many instances 

 the effects produced by its use upon the human system must have 

 been owing to the presence of the bee poison, a few quotations from 

 the elder Pliny (born a.d. 23) on the virtues of honey, will be of 

 peculiar interest. I extract from Holland's translation, published in 

 London in 1601. 



"Honeycombs given in a gruel made of furmitie first parched and 

 dried at the fire, is singular for the bloody flux and exulcation of the 

 bowls," vol 2, page 137. "In the throat the kernels of each side 

 thereof called the tonsils, for the squinanci (quinsy), and all the other 

 evils befalling to the mouth, as also for the dryness of the tongue 

 through extremity of heat in fevers, it is the most sovereign thing in 

 the world," page 135. " Honey boiled is singular for the inflammation 

 of the lungs and for the pleurisy ; also, it cureth the wounds inflicted 

 by the sting or teeth of serpents. . . . Honey, together with the oyle 

 of roses, dropped into the ears, cureth their stinging and pain. .... 

 being used simply alone, and not compounded with other things, it is 

 hurtful to the eyes, and yet others give counsel to touch and anoint 

 the corners of the eyes therewith, when they are exulerate." " It is 

 an excellent thing for them that be stung, to take the very hees -in dritikj 

 for it is an approved cure." . . . " As touching divers sorts of venom- 

 ous honey, I have written already ; but for to repress the poison 

 thereof, it is good to use other honey loherein a niimher of hees have 

 heen forced to die ; and such honey so prepared and taken in time, is 

 a sovereign remedy for all the accidents which may come by eating or 

 surfeiting upon fish." Page 363. The italics are mine. 



I will close by relating a conversation I had two weeks ago with Mr. 

 Eli Whitney, of New Haven (Conn.,) son of the celebrated Eli Whit- 

 ney, inventor of the cotton-gin. Knowing the interest I took in bees 

 and honey, he told me that for years he had suffered from acute chronic 

 catarrh, and that on one occasion he obtained relief from severe pain, 

 his nostrils feeling almost closed. He rubbed his little finger in some 

 honey befoi^e him, which was exuding from the comb, and applied it to 

 the inner nostrils as an emollient or lubricator. Experiencing almost 

 instantaneous relief, he continued to use honey freely for this purpose, 

 until now he is almost entirely cured. Had he used boiled honey, he 

 would probably have been but little, if any, benefited thereby; and had 

 he used sugar syrup with bee-poison added, I presume it would have 

 proved equally curative with the honey. The use of honey for catarrh 

 is clearly suggested by the above extracts from Pliny and Butler. — 

 L. L. Langstroth, Oxford, Ohio. 



SIZE OF HIVES. 



Can you inform me why Mr. Pettigrew prefers hives 16 and 

 18 inches by 12 inches ? I think if the hives were 20 and 

 22 inches wide and 7 or 8 inches high they would be hotter. — 

 Lancashire. 



[In answer to the above ioquiry, I have to say that the shape 

 of the hives is left in the " Handy Book of Bees " to the taste 

 of it3 readers. In my eyes a hive 22 inches wide by 7 or 8 inches 

 high would be offensively disproportioned ; it would look like a 

 great Gloucester cheese in shape, whereas a hive 12 inches deep 

 and 18 inches wide is symmetrical and pleasing. All persons 

 who see my hives are as much astonished at their beauty as at 

 their size. *' Lancashike " thinks a shallower hive would be 

 better. In what sense better? I have stated elsewhere that 

 the bees in shallow hives, generally speakiafr, gather honey 

 faster than iu narrow deep ones ; but I think 7 or 8 inches too 

 shallow for breeding, and that the deep hives are better for 

 the purpose. Hence I adopt and recommend hives 16 and 

 18 inches wide by 12 deep, inside measure ; but I hope '* Lan- 

 cashire " will try the wide-shallow hive, be pleased with the 

 result, and let the readers of the Journal have the benefit of his 



