180 THE BEE-MASTER OF WARRILOW 
scrutineers to places having, in themselves, no sort 
of interest to the winged hive-people. 
The Perils of ‘‘ Immunity ” 
The mention of stinging brings back a thought 
that has often occurred to me. Do lovers of honey 
ever quite realise the price that must be paid before 
their favourite sweet is there for them on the break- 
fast-table, filling the room with the mingled perfume 
from a whole countryside? It is easy to talk of 
immunity from the effect of bee-stings; but the truth 
is that this immunity means, for the bee-master, no 
more than power to go on with his work in spite 
of the stinging. And this power is not a permanent 
one. It is brought about by incessant pricks from 
the living poisoned needle; the ordeal must be 
continuous, or the immunity will soon pass away. 
Over-care in handling bees is good only up to a 
certain point. The bee-man who, by continual 
practice, has brought this gentlest art to its highest 
perfection, so that he can do what he likes with his 
own bees without fear of harm, has, in a sense, 
created for himself a kind of fools’ paradise. All 
the time his once dear-bought privilege is slowly 
forsaking him. He is like the Listerist faddist, who 
so destroys all disease germs in his vicinity that 
his natural disease-resisting organisation becomes 
atrophied through want of work. Then, perhaps, 
his precautions are upheld for a season, whereupon 
a particularly virulent microbe happens by; and, 
finding the house empty, swept, and garnished, calls 
in the seven devils with a will. 
Such a contingency is always in wait for the stay- 
