314 AUSTRALASIAN 
is also used in the preparation of honey soap, and probably in 
\ 
some other branches of manufactures. 
HONEY AS MEDICINE. 
Gibbon, the historian, remarks of the ancient Greeks, and 
especially the Athenians, “ They taught that health might be 
preserved, and life prolonged, by the external use of oil, and 
internal use of honey.” Physicians have continued to use 
honey, more or less, in all ages up to the present time, both as 
a medicine and as a medium for administering some drugs. 
Mr. Newman, who has collected much information with regard 
to the uses of honey in his work, ‘‘ Bees and Honey,” gives the 
following quotation from a pamphlet by Herr Karl Gatter, a 
German teacher, and editor of the Bienenvater, at Vienna, who 
considers that his own life was saved by the use of honey for 
the cure of diseased throat and lungs :— 
‘‘In medicine, and especially in the healing of wounds, was honey, 
already in early times, used as a universal remedy ; it yet constitutes 
the principal ingredient of several medical preparations, is used with 
the best results in many internal and external diseases, serves as a 
means for taking powders, for the preparation of salves, and the 
sweetening of medicine. 
‘‘Honey mollifies ; promotes festering; causes gentle purging, 
divides and dissolves, warms, nourishes, stops pains, strengthens the 
tone of the stomach, carries away all superfluous moisture, aids diges- 
tion, thins and purities the blood, and animates and strengthens the 
breast, nerves and lungs. Honey is therefore to be used when suffering 
from cough, hoarseness, stoppage of the lungs, shortness of breath, and 
especially with the best results in all affections of the chest. 
“* Many persons afflicted with various species of consumption, thank 
the use of good honey, either for their entire restoration to health, or 
for the mitigation of their often painful condition of body and mind. 
‘* Honey is also an excellent remedy for the occasional inactivity of 
the abdominal organs, and a means of strengthening weak nerves. For 
severe coughing, barley-water mixed with honey and the juice of 
lemons, drank warm, is a pleasant relief. It appeases and mitigates 
fevers, and owing to its taste and its soothing qualities, it is used as 
a gargle. 
_ * Honey can also be used with advantage in asthma, in constipation, 
in sore throat ; promotes perspiration, lessens phlegm, and is very 
healing to the chest, sore from coughing. 
‘With old persons the use of honey is very useful, since it produces 
warmth and a certain activity of the skin. For persons leading a 
sedentary life, and suffering from costiveness, and especially from piles, 
pure unadulterated honey, either mixed in their drink, used alone, or 
on bread, is the best and healthiest means of relief, 
