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^ HONEY AS A CARRIER OF 
INTESTINAL DISEASES 
c By 
I WALTER G. SACKETT 
Among the different articles of food which we have come to 
regard as possible carriers of the germs of the typhoid-colon 
group, no one appears to have suggested honey. This is rather 
surprising, considering the fact that it is consumed in a raw state, 
and that its occurence and use are quite general. The failure to 
include honey in the list is probably because the majority of in- 
vestigators who are devoting their time to studies of this kind are 
not familiar either with the conditions under which honey is pro- 
cured or with the habits of honey bees. 
While pursuing another investigation in Tennessee during 
July, 1918, the writer frequently observed bees crawling over the 
human excrement of the family privy. This structure was quite 
typical of the farm privies of that section; no excavation had been 
made to receive the fecal matter, and to facilitate the removal of 
the latter, the lower part of the back side was not boarded up. 
Chickens, snakes, flies, and bees, all had free access thereto, and 
among them but little material was allowed to accumulate. Sub- 
sequent inquiry concerning this peculiar habit of honey bees has 
confirmed the writer’s observations. 
It is difficult to conceive of conditions better suited to the 
dissemination of intestinal bacteria than those afforded by the 
case just cited, and if an ideal opportunity was ever offered for 
the contamination of a food stuff, it should have been realized 
in the wax and honey produced by such bees. The possible rela- 
tion of this subject to food poisoning seemed of sufficient import- 
ance to justify an inquiry into the behavior of intestinal bacteria 
in honey, and accordingly we have undertaken a study of the 
longevity of ten micro-organisms of this group in extracted honey. 
MICRO-ORGANISMS OF THE APIARY 
Before considering the experimental work with which this 
paper deals, a brief reference to the micro-organisms which have 
been found associated with bees and their products will be of 
interest. 
