148 Digestion of Nectar. 
in buckwheat honey, less in basswood. There is also a 
little acid—formic acid—which probably aids to digest the 
nectar, and possibly with the saliva, may, like the acid 
gastric juice of our own stomachs, resist putrefaction, or 
any kind of fermentation. It has been urged that this 
is added to the honey by the bees dropping poison from 
the sting. I much doubt this theory. It is more reason- 
able, however, than the absurd view that the bee uses its 
sting to polish its cells. If the poison glands can secrete 
formic acid, why cannot the glands of the stomach? Anal- 
ogy, no less than common sense, favors this view. The 
acid of honey is often recognizable to the taste, as every 
lover of honey knows. The acid is also shown by use of 
blue litmus. The specific gravity varies greatly of course, 
as we should expect from the great variation in the 
amount of water. I have found very thick honey to have 
a specific gravity of 1.40 to 1.50. The fact that honey is 
digested nectar or sucrose shows that in eating honey, our 
food is partially digested for us, the cane sugar is changed 
to a sugar that can be readily absorbed and assimilated. 
I have fed bees pure cane sugar, and when stored, the 
late Prof. R. F. Kedzie found that nearly all of this sugar 
was transformed in much the same way that the nectar is 
changed which is taken from the flowers. 
It is probable that the large compound racemose glands 
in the head and thorax of the bees (Fig. 38, 4, c,) secrete an 
abundant ferment which hastens these transformations 
which the sugars undergo while in the honey stomach of 
the bee. Possibly juices from the honey stomach also aid 
in these changes. Much of the water escapes after the 
honey is stored. 
The method of collecting honey has already been 
described. The principles of lapping and suction are both 
involved in the operation, 
When the stomach is full, the bee repairs to the hive and 
regurgitates its precious load, either giving it to the bees or 
storing it in the cells. This honey remains for some time - 
uncapped that it may ripen, in which process the water is 
partially evaporated and the honey rendered thicker. If the 
honey remains uncapped, ‘or is removed from the cells, it will 
