BEE-KEEPEU S MANUAL, 251 



It sometimes happens, that when the bees find the 

 head and hands invulnerable, they will descend and 

 crawl up the legs of your pantaloons. It is best to wear 

 boots, and in some cases, when many bees are placed in 

 a situation where they might chance to get into the legs 

 of your nether garments, it will be requisite to tie strings 

 around to prevent such a result. 



Woollen gloves or mittens should always be used, as 

 the stings of the bees can be easily withdrawn from 

 such ; whereas, they cannot from buckskin or leather, 

 which causes the death of every bee that perforates 

 them. 



BEE-STINGS HOW CURED, ETC. 



The venom or poison of the honey-bee, is very active, 

 rather more so than that of the wasp. The fluid is of a 

 transparent nature, and when applied to the tongue im- 

 parts a sweet taste. It is not necessary that the fluid 

 should be imparted from the sting of a bee, to produce 

 pain and swelling ; the puncture of a needle, with the 

 fluid on its point, would produce precisely the same 

 effect. 



The activity of the poison depends somewhat on the 

 temperature of the weather. During the heat of sum- 

 mer it causes much greater inflammation, than in the , 

 winter season. 



Some persons are much more affected by stings than 

 others ; this is owing to a peculiar state of the system 

 or blood, as it exists in different people. 



The only positive and immediate cure for a bee-sting, 



