Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  I 
January,  1S95.  / 
Laboratory  Notes. 
27 
Wash.,  D.  C,  No.  13,  part  6,  where  we  frequently  find  such 
appellations  as  "apparently  adulterated,"  "apparently  genuine." 
In  deciding  whether  a  honey  is  a  natural  product  or  not,  we  must 
call  into  question  every  recognized  qualification  a  pure  honey 
should  possess,  and  then  we  are  occasionally  unable  to  make  an 
absolute  decision. 
Pure  honey  is  the  nectar  of  flowers  and  other  saccharin  exuda- 
tions of  plants,,  collected  by  bees  and  stored  in  cells  built,  in  part 
at  least,  by  the  bees  themselves.  The  source  from  whence  the  honey 
is  collected  is  of  no  small  importance. 
Honey  may  vary  in  color  from  a  water  white  to  a  black,  is  gener- 
ally levorotatory,  rarely  exceeding — 200  at  200  C.  Contains  from 
12-20  per  cent,  of  water,  from  a  mere  trace  to  0  30  per  cent,  of  ash, 
from  60-75  Per  cent-  of  reducing  sugar,  from  o-io  per  cent,  of 
sucrose,  and  a  microscopical  examination  should  reveal  the  presence 
of  pollen  grains.  The  U.  S.  P.  requires  a  limit  of  chlorides  and 
sulphates. 
Recently  there  came  to  my  notice  a  number  of  samples  of  honey 
containing  an  excess  of  chlorides.  From  this  it  was  concluded  that 
the  honey  had  been  adulterated  with  glucose  prepared  through  the 
agency  of  hydrochloric  acid.  During  a  conversation  with  the  pro- 
ducer I  learned  that  the  honey  had  been  accumulated  from  a  "  salt 
marsh."  Thinking  that  this  environment  might  account  for  the 
excessive  quantity  of  chlorides,  I  made  a  complete  examination  with 
the  following  results :  color  light  yellow,  all  were  levorotatory 
( — 1  -8 5 0  to — 2-82°)  at  the  normal  temperature;  average  percent- 
age of  water  16  13  per  cent.;  ash  0-25  per  cent.;  reducing  sugar 
68-19  Per  cent.;  an  abundance  of  pollen  grains;  sulphates,  a  trace; 
chlorides  excessive  ;  and  the  honey  would  not  comply  with  the  abso- 
lute alcohol  test  which,  in  my  opinion,  is  an  excessive  requirement. 
I  have  not  found  a  single  honey  in  over  one  hundred  samples  that 
would  comply  with  this  test  rigidly.  Dextrin  is  the  principal 
ingredient  this  test  endeavors  to  eliminate.  G.  L.  Spencer1  has 
shown  that  pure  honey  may  contain  as  much  as  4  per  cent,  of 
dextrin,  and  E.  von  Raumer2  has  demonstrated  that  honey  dew 
contains  a  large  percentage  of  dextrin  which  frequently  finds  its 
way  into  honey  during  certain  portions  of  the  year. 
1iS92,  Bull.  Agr.  Dept.,  Wash.,  D.  C,  No.  13,  808. 
-1894,  Ztsehr.  anal  Chem.,  33,  397. 
