422 REMEDIES FOR THE STING OF A EEE. 



It may be some comfort to those who desire to keep bees, 

 to know that after a while the poison will produce less and 

 less effect upon their system. When I first became inter- 

 ested in bees, a siing was quite a formidable thing, the pain 

 being often very intense, and the wound swelling so as 

 sometimes to obstruct my sight. At present, the pain is 

 usually slight, and if the sting is quickly extracted, no un- 

 pleasant consequences ensue, even if no remedies are used. 

 Huish speaks of seeing the bald head of Bonner, a celebra- 

 ted practical Apiarian, lined with bee stings which seemed 

 to produce upon him no unpleasant effects. Old bee-keep- 

 ers, like Milhridates, king of Pontus, appear almost to thrive 

 upon poison ilself. The Rev. Mr. Kleine advocates a truly 

 heroic remedy, advising beginners to suffer themselves to be 

 stung so frequently, as to accustom their systems to the effect 

 of the poison ! He assures them that two seasons will be 

 sufficient to accomplish this, as any one who tries it in 

 earnest, may readily ascertain. 

 "I have met with a highly amusing remedy, very gravely 

 propounded by an old English Apiarian. I mention it more 

 as a matter of curiosity, than because I imagine that many 

 of my readers will be likely to make trial of it. He says, 

 let the person who has been stung, catch as speedily as pos- 

 sible, another bee, and make it sting on the same spot! It 

 requires some courage, even in an enthusiastic disciple of 

 Huber, to venture upon such a singular homeopathic rem- 

 edy ; but as this old writer had previously stated, what I had 

 verified in my own experience, that the oftener a person 

 was stung, the less he suffered from the venom, I determinSd 

 to make trial of his prescription. Allowing a sting to re- 

 main until it had discharged all its venom, I compelled 

 another bee to insert its sting, as near as possible, in the 

 same spot. 1 used no remedies of any kind, and had the 



