70 



Scientific Proceedings (iio). 



growth of organisms freshly inoculated on plates, which were 

 exposed to such fumes in partially closed chambers, for periods 

 varying from ten to thirty minutes. 



While the experiments above reported were of a crude char- 

 acter the results obtained were of so uniform a nature, that the 

 authors are inclined to conclude that the fumes produced by the 

 burning or destructive dry distillation of various gums, spices 

 and other aromatic substances of a similar nature, certainly tend 

 to exert an antiseptic action on the bacteria studied. This is of 

 course of interest not only from the scientific point of view, but 

 also to the historian, as offering a possible explanation for the 

 extensive employment of incense in connection with sacrificial 

 rites, etc. 



32 (1614) 



The vitamine content of honey and honeycomb. 



By Philip B. Hawk, Clarence A. Smith and Olaf Bergeim. 



[From the Laboratory of Physiological Chemistry, Jefferson Medical 

 College, Philadelphia.] 



Dutcher 1 concluded from experiments on pigeons that honey 

 contained a small but negligible amount of antineuritic vitamine. 

 Faber 2 did not find honey to protect against scurvy in guinea pigs. 



The present authors carried out feeding experiments on albino 

 rats, to determine whether the growth promoting accessories fat- 

 soluble A and water-soluble B were present in white clover honey 

 or in a mixed strained honey, and whether these honeys protected 

 guinea pigs against scurvy. 



Rats fed a diet lacking water-soluble B when compared with 

 rats fed the same diet except that half of the carbohydrate was 

 replaced by an isodynamic equivalent of either of these honeys, 

 showed in five weeks an average gain in weight of only five grams 

 in favor of the honey-fed rats. 



Similar experiments on the addition of the strained honey to 

 diets deficient in fat-soluble A showed almost similar failure of 



1 Dutcher, R. A., J. Biol. Chem., 1918, xxxvi, 551. 



2 Faber, H. K., J. Biol. Chem., 1920, xliii, 113. 



