90 Honey, its Origin and Adulteration. 



HONEY, ITS OKIGIN AND ADULTERATION .* 



BY W. W. STODDART. 



Honey is so familiar an object, and so well known to the 

 youngest child, that it has become quite a household word. 

 It has had its praises from every author and poet, from the 

 sacred writers to the present day ; and yet it is very surprising 

 how little mention is made in any chemical or botanical work 

 of the changes that take place in its elimination, of its origin, 

 or even of its composition. Like the foreigner who consulted 

 Johnson's Dictionary, the more he searched the more he was 

 puzzled. Fownes, Turner, Gregory, and Stockhardt simply 

 state that the solid crystalline portion of honey is grape-sugar, 

 but say nothing of -the liquid. Johnston in the first volume of 

 Chemistry of Common Life, says " Honey is formed or 

 deposited naturally in the nectaries of flowers, and is extracted 

 therefrom by the bees. When allowed to stand for some time, 

 it separates into a white solid sugar, consisting of white 

 crystals, and a thick semifluid syrup. Both the solid and 

 liquid sugars have the same general properties. The solid sugar 

 of honey is identical with the sugar of the grape." 



Dr. Hassall, in the article on honey, in his Food Adul- 

 terations, after quoting the above, says that the regularly- 

 formed crystals, myriads of which are present in honey, are 

 identical in form with cane-sugar. Such is the drift of the 

 whole information that 'can be gathered respecting the compo- 

 sition of honey. 



On dissecting the honey bee, we find the proboscis con- 

 tinued into a beautiful ligula or tongue. It is a flexile organ, 

 covered with circlets of very minute hairs. The ligula of the 

 honey bee differs from that of the other divisions of the bee 

 family (the Andrsenidse) both in shape and microscopic appear- 

 ance. It is probable that the bee uses the ligula, by inserting 

 it in the nectar, which would be plentifully collected by means 

 of the hairs before-mentioned. These hairs very likely answer 

 a somewhat similar purpose to the teeth of the molluscan 

 tongue. At the base of the proboscis commences the oesopha- 

 gus, which, after passing through the thorax, terminates in an 

 expanded sac, termed the honeybag. This is an elastic glan- 

 dular organ, placed before the entrance to the true stomach. 

 Into this sac the saccharine fluid enters after being swallowed. 

 Should, however, any more solid substance be present, it is 

 forwarded into the true stomach for trituration by the numerous 



* The author read a paper on this subject before the Bristol Miscroscopical 

 Society. 



