315 
REMEDIES FOR THE STING OF A BEE. 
to swell again. As most of the popular remedies are 
rubbed m, they are worse than nothing. 
It the mouth is applied to the wound, unpleasant conse- 
quences may follow; for, while the poison of snakes 
affecting only the circulating system, may be swallowed 
with impunity, the poison of the bee acts with great power 
on the organs of digestion. Distressing headaches are 
often produced by it, as any one who has been stung or 
lias tasted the poison, very well knows.* 
Mr. Wagner says : “ The juice of the ripe berry of the 
common coral honeysuckle {Lonicera caprifolium) is (he 
best remedy I have ever used for the sting of bees, wasps 
hornets, &c. The berries or the expressed juice may be' 
preserved in a. bottle well closed, and will keep their 
efhcacy more than a year.” 
The milky juice of the white poppy is highly recom- 
mended. An old German writer states that it will instan- 
taneously allay the pain and prevent swelling. 
Others recommend the juice of tobacco as a sovereign 
panacea. Relief has unquestionably been found, by * 
< ifferont persons, from each of these remedies, and there 
is as little reason to expect that one remedy will answer 
for all, as that the same disease can always be cured by 
the same medicines. J 
In my own case, I have found cold water to be the best 
remedy for a bee-sting. The poison being very volatile 
is quickly dissolved in it; and the coldness of the water 
lias also a powerful tendency to check inflammation. 
The leaves of the plantain, crushed and applied to the 
wound, are a very good substitute when water cannot at 
.ith„ An0 <1WrU< ’ rS:>y3: “ If b “ 9 . when (load, ore dried to powder, and given to 
excmol tf* 0, \ \ th ' S me<ildne wl " oft ™ Sive immediate ease in tin, most 
ZZ A ? P ‘ Un ’ T '' < '" 10V0 “ St0plm?e in the bo,1 r "’hen oil other means have 
« ibid h ^ Pouring boiling (voter upon bees has recently been pre- 
k 2 tbo n f (0 '' V '°' ent 8tran * ,Uy : wbiI ® tb « r' i- '-n of the 
, umlc.i i bo name of apis, Is o great liomcobpathlc remedy. 
