BEE MANUAL. 81 



manures. Liebig and other chemists have proved that all the 

 elements of the non-nitrogenous vegetable substances are 

 derived from the atmosphere and from rain-water ; it is clear, 

 therefore, that no quantity of honey produced in any district 

 can tend to impoverish the soil from which the nectar is col- 

 lected. While lying in the nectaries of blossoms, and being 

 collected by the bee, or afterwards when being stored in the 

 honey-comb, it may by accident take up some particles of pollen, 

 which will account for the fact that minute grains of that 

 substance are generally discoverable in honey when examined 

 with the microscope. In its passage through the honey-sac of 

 the bee, and in the act of being stored in the cells of the comb, 

 the raw juice goes through a process of ripening, which deprives 

 it of all superfluous watery particles, and while in the honey-sac 

 it is also probably in some way chemically affected by the juices 

 from the salivary glands of the bee. When quite "ripe," it is 

 hermetically sealed in the cells by the worker bees, just as the 

 preserves of a careful housekeeper are closed up so as to save 

 them from the action of the oxygen in the atmosphere. The 

 honey in this ripened state is nearly the same, in point of 

 chemical composition, as ordinary sugar ; but it owes its per- 

 fume and flavour apparently to "the same volatile oils which 

 attracted the insects to the flowers from which it is derived, 

 and that it is indeed something very different from common 

 sugar is sufficiently clear to every one. Chemical analysis is 

 an invaluable aid in the prosecution of scientific investigations, 

 and it is quite astounding to the layman to observe the nicety 

 of the results which modern chemists can arrive at ; but still 

 there are some subtile peculiarities of matter which seem to 

 evade all analytical examination. The constituent parts of 

 starch and of gum are very nearly the same as those of sugar, 

 and yet how different to our sight, touch, and taste are all 

 those substances ! On this subject Professor Cook remarks as 

 follows : — 



"Nectar of flowers and honey are quite different. The former 

 contains more water, is neutral instead of acid, and the sugars taken 

 frcm the flowers are much modified while in the alimentary canal of 

 the bee in transit from flower to comb. Nectar consists of sucrose, or 

 cane sugar, from twelve to fifteen per cent., and mellose, or uncry- 

 stallisable sugar ten per cent. The remainder is mostly water, though 

 there is always a small amount of nitrogenous material. In honey the 



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