THE POISON OF THE HONEY-BEE. 79 



then good is changed to evil, and the evil is the 

 greater, the more comprehensive the truth that is 

 so shamefully abused. It is absurd and may entail 

 sad consequences upon the world, if the rational use 

 of Apis is to be converted to the irrational proceed- 

 ings of the so-called specific method, which is often 

 practised by men who, knowing better, purposely 

 conceal the truth from the world. For years past, 

 I have been called upon again and again, by patients 

 who had been in the hands of these men, and who 

 had been drenched with medicine, and had had all 

 sorts of disastrous complications engendered in their 

 poor bodies, to afford them some relief from these 

 tortures inflicted by physicians who do not hesitate 

 to assail the health of their patients by massive 

 doses of drugs, of which they often know nothing 

 but the name. 



"With these facts before me, nobody can find it 

 strange that I should feel some misgivings in laying 

 before the world a drug endowed with such exten- 

 sive virtues. Apis is one of those drugs, the abuse 

 of wHch may prove as destructive as the use of it 

 is a source of saving good. It is no antipsoric, nor 

 is it capable of antidoting the three miasms, or of 

 inflicting medicinal diseases for life. Nevertheless, 

 it is a deeply and speedily-acting drug, for it affects 

 the whole internal mucous membrane, the nervous 

 system, and the process of sanguification, thus dis- 

 turbing the health for a long time. Its primary 

 aggravating action, its deeply penetrating inter- 

 ference with the existing morbid process, which 

 may lead to errors in diagnosis, and its power to 



