204 HAJTDLING 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 

 Therapeutiques," Gubler, Paris, 1874.) 



404. It may be some comfort to noTices 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 

 homoeopathic 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 satisfaction, 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 



