REMEDIES FOR THE STING OP A BEE. 377 



The assailed party should quickly retreat from the vicinity 

 of the hives, to the protection of a building, or if none is 

 near, he should hide himself in a clump of bushes, and lie 

 perfectly still, with his head covered, until the bees leave 

 him. 



Remedies for the Sting op a Bee. 



If only a few of the host of remedies, so zealously advo- 

 cated, could be made effectual, few persons vi^ould have 

 much reason to dread being stung. Most of them, however, 

 are of no manner of use whatever. Like the prescriptions 

 of the quack, they are absolutely worse than doing nothing 

 at all. 



The first thing to be done after being stung, is to pull the 

 sting out of the wound as quickly as ■possible. Even after 

 it is lorn from the body of the bee, (see p. 60,) the muscles 

 which control it, are in active operation, and it pen- 

 etrates deefer and deeper into the flesh, injecting contin- 

 ually more and more of its poison into the wound. Every 

 Apiarian should have about his person, or close at hand, a 

 small piece of looking-glass, so that he may be able with tlie 

 least possible delay to find and remove a sting. In most 

 cases if it is at once removed, it will produce no serious 

 consequences ; whereas if suffered to empty all its vials of 

 wrath, it may cause great inflammation and severe suffering. 

 After the sting is removed, the utmost possible care should 

 betaken, not to irritate the wound by the very slightest, ruh- 

 bing. However intense the smarting, and of course the 

 disposition to apply friction to the wound, it should never 

 be done, as the poison will at once be carried through the 

 circulating system, and severe consequences may ensue. 

 As most of the popular remedies are rubbed in, they are of 

 32* 



