204 HANDLING BEES. 
ammonia may be taken, in quantities of from five to twenty 
drops,—for an adult, less for a child,—in hot tea, with ben- 
eficial results. It causes an increased perspiration, and 
neutralizes the effects of the poison. (‘‘Commentaires 
Thérapeutiques,’” Gubler, Paris, 1874.) 
404. It may be some comfort to novices to know that 
the poison will produce less and less effect upon their 
system. Old bee-keepers, like Mithridates, appear almost 
to thrive upon poison itself. When we first became inter- 
ested in bees, a sting was quite a formidable thing, the pain 
being often very intense, and the wound swelling so as 
sometimes to obstruct our sight. At present, the pain is 
usually slight, and, if the sting is quickly extracted, no 
unpleasant consequences ensue, even if no remedies are 
used. Huish speaks of seeing the bald head of Bonner, a 
celebrated practical Apiarist, covered with stings, which 
seemed to produce upon him no unpleasant effects. The 
Rev. Mr. Kleine advises beginners to allow themselves to 
be stung frequently, assuring them that, in two seasons, 
their system will become accustomed to the poison! 
An old English Apiarist advises a person who has been 
stung, to catch another bee as speedily as possible, and 
make it sting on the same spot. Even an enthusiastic dis- 
ciple of Huber might hesitate to venture on such a singular 
homeopathic remedy; but, as this Apiarist had stated, 
what we had verified in our own experience, that the oftener 
a person is stung the less he suffers from the venom, the 
writer determined to make trial of his prescription. Allow- 
ing a sting to remain until it had discharged all of its poison, 
he compelled another bee to insert its sting, as nearly as pos- 
sible, in the same spot. He used no remedies of any kind, 
and had the safisfaction, in his zeal for new discoveries, of 
suffering more from the pain and swelling than for years 
before. 
That the bee-keeper becomes inoculated with the poison 
