6 THE BOOK OF BEE-KEEPING 



analysts, as set forth in a pamphlet issued by the British Bee- 

 keepers' Association : "All food, if not soluble in water, requires 

 to be changed within the body before its nutritive parts can be 

 received into the system. This change is accomplished by the 

 process of solution, and is called digestion. Starch, which 

 forms three-fourths of the bread we eat, is useless as food while 

 it remains in the form of starch — undissolved. In the act of 

 eating, saliva changes part of the starch into sugar, which, in 

 due course, being received in solution into the blood, supplies 

 heat and power. Honey, in its natural state, is already in con- 

 dition for absorption into the system, and requires no labour 

 to render it a heat-producing power. Hence the superiority of 

 honey over all other kinds of sugar food." But here we must 

 call attention to the fact that the honey must be pure, and none 

 of the compounds — usually consisting of glucose — sold as such. 

 Tons of this so-called honey have been sold in England, the 

 purchasers becoming disgusted with it. It has frequently pro- 

 duced nausea and other ailments, which many have laid at the 

 door of honey. Pure unadulterated honey, extracted from clean 

 combs, or eaten in the form of "sections," will produce a healthy 

 condition of the body, which no other food-stuff has a like pro- 

 portion of power in so eminent a degree. 



III.— THE HONEY BEE. 



12. Object of Knowing its ITatural History. — A con- 

 densed account of the bee's natural history is of much importance 

 to the would-be bee-keeper; without this he will be like a man 

 groping in the dark. The reason of this or that happening will 

 be inexplicable, cause and effect will be an enigma. We will, 

 therefore, endeavour to give sufficient information upon this 

 subject that the veriest tyro will, after some reflection and 

 observation, be able to enter into conversation upon bee-keeping 

 matters with an assurance — at all times pleasant to feel — that 

 his knowledge and observations have placed him in a position 

 to substantiate any advice he may give or argument he may 

 desire to support. But we should wish especially to give this 

 caution ; that not alone from quotations from books should the 

 knowledge be gained, but from close application to the practical 

 study of the hive and its contents ; deducing such theories as 

 seem probable, and comparing these with those as written here 

 and in other works upon the subject. 



13. Place in the Animal Kingdom. — The bee belongs 

 to the branch of the animal kingdom called Articulata, as all 

 its parts are jointed or articulated, and having no internal 

 skeleton. It forms one of the class of Jnsecta, which breathe 

 the air through a complication of tubes, branching all over the 

 body. The openings of these tubes are called spiracles, and 

 are situated along each side of the body ; these are fringed 



