THE INTEREST IN INSECTS 
IOI 
merit, painful as it may seem, is a wel- 
come relief for the incessant pain of the 
rheumatism. 
“At first the sting of the bees was 
very painful to me and the swellings 
resulting from the stings were great, 
but as my system gradually became 
inoculated with the poison from the 
stings the pain and swelling grew less 
Poetic and Rheumatic. 
Not every “estate” with a poetic or 
romantic name squares up to its cog- 
nomen. One case in point is ‘hat of a 
beautiful estate in Orange Countv. N. 
Y., which the gentle bred wife of the 
new owner christened “The P>irches,” 
because she admired the name. But 
there was not a birch tree on the prop- 
A “CLOSE UP” VIEW OF THE STINGING. 
in proportion. I can now take the stings 
without flinching and feel very little 
pain at all. It certainly is curing me.” 
Fred Muth explains the strange cure 
this way: “It is a well-known fact that 
the sting of the honeybee is made pain- 
ful by the formic acid which enters the 
wound when the bee stings. This acid 
is contained in a tiny little bag attached 
to the thick end of the stinger. When 
a honeybee stings, this little bag of acid 
and the surrounding muscles break 
away from the body of the bee and the 
bee flies away and dies, while the sting, 
propelled by the adhering muscles, 
sticks into the flesh and keeps on im- 
bedding itself deeper and deeper, at the 
same time pumping the formic acid into 
the wound. Physicians have found that 
formic acid counteracts rheumatism, 
and when introduced into the system, 
in many cases, causes a cure. Allowing 
one’s self to be stung by the honeybees 
is introducing formic acid into the sys- 
tem, which in turn counteracts rheu- 
matism. 
Copper was mined during the war at 
Blue Hill, Maine. 
ertv, and although thousands of dollars 
were spent in an endeavor to propagate 
a grove of birches on the premises to 
make it At the name, it all came to 
naught — the birches would simply 
neither grow nor live there. 
Professor ' Walter King Stone, the 
artist, who fills a chair in the art and 
architecture college of Cornell Univer- 
sity, and spends his summers at his 
country place. “Twin Doors,” near 
Canaan, Conn., believes in observing 
the proprieties in bestowing a name. 
He has just purchased a residence in 
Ithaca, N. Y. A brook runs through 
the rear of the grounds, and Mr. Stone 
is considering the idea of calling his 
place “Lumbago,” on account of the 
“creek in the back.” — The Greenwich 
News and Graphic. 
A little cloud-ladder runs up to the blue. 
Oh, would we could mount it, and take a 
peep through 
To where stars and planets their lone vigil 
keep 
Above us through sunshine as well as 
through sleep. 
— Emma Peirce. 
