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The  Origin  and  Formation  of  Honey. 
A.m.  Jour.  Pharni. 
June,  1904. 
Like  the  question  once  asked :  "  When  a  rifle  bullet  was  shot 
through  a  board,  which  went  through  first — the  bullet  or  the  hole  ?  " 
They  naturally  go  together.  So  we  would  answer  when  asked  which 
would  be  the  most  important  factor  in  the  production  of  honey — the 
nectar  or  the  bee  ?  we  would  say,  they  inseparably  must  go  together. 
The  first  combination  (nectar)  as  produced  by  nature  under  cer- 
tain conditions,  primarily  possibly  for  the  fertilization  of  the  blossom, 
is  a  very  thin,  watery  fluid,  insipidly  sweet,  with  very  little  flavor. 
This  fluid  is  taken  into  the  mouth  of  the  bee  and  chemically  changed, 
and  by  the  salivary  secretion  being  mixed  with  the  fluid  supplied  by 
large  glands  from  the  head  and  thorax,  converting  this  fluid  into 
dextrose  and  levulose,  resulting  in  a  fruit-sugar  or  honey,  then 
deposited  by  the  bee  in  the  little  wax  cells  and  evaporated  by  the 
action  of  the  bee's  wings  under  a  high  temperature  about  50  per 
cent.,  and  then  capped  over  and  sealed  like  a  housewife  would  seal 
fruit  when  it  is  about  75  per  cent,  or  85  per  cent,  solid,  ripe  honey 
containing  on  the  average  about  15  per  cent,  to  25  per  cent,  of  water. 
A  great  deal  of  honey  is  of  a  poor  quality  on  account  of  the  bee- 
keeper rushing  his  product  to  the  market  and  extracting  it  before  it 
is  thoroughly  evaporated.  This  causes  fermentation  and  destroys 
both  quality  and  flavor.  Formic  acid,  as  made  by  the  bee,  makes 
honey  somewhat  of  an  antiseptic,  preventing  decomposition. 
POLARISCOPE. 
While  there  are  a  number  of  methods  of  analyzing  honey  to 
determine  its  adulteration,  yet  by  the  aid  of  the  polariscope  is  the 
only  acknowledged  method  to-day  that  has  any  degree  of  certainty 
in  its  results. 
In  the  bulletin  published  by  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture, 
in  the  year  1892,  Bulletin  No.  13,  Division  of  Chemistry,  we  have  a 
very  full  and  complete  result  of  vast  researches  in  the  line  of  the 
polariscope  work.  On  page  789  of  that  bulletin,  we  have  the  anal- 
ysis by  the  polariscope  of  honeys  that  are  given  at  dextro-rotation. 
This  at  first  might  baffle  the  chemist,  but  the  invert  or  second  read- 
ing has  classed  them  in  a  separate  class  by  themselves. 
On  page  801  we  have  the  statement  that  at  the  present  time  no 
genuine  samples  of  honey  collected  in  this  country  have  shown  a 
right-handed  rotation ;  yet  the  suspicion  is  thrown  out  that  a  honey 
gathered  from  the  excrescence  of  the  pine  tree  shows  a  low  right- 
hand  reading,  and  yet  might  be  classed  as  pure. 
