56 
BEE  BREAD  AS  A  DIURETIC. 
of  an  hour :  but  in  an  ordinary  bed-room  or  sitting-room  one 
ounce  was  sufficient  to  render  the  air  so  active  that  ozone  test- 
papers  were  discolored  by  it  to  the  highest  degree  of  Moffatt's 
scale  in  from  five  to  ten  minutes.  For  charging  the  sick  room 
rapidly  and  effectually  with  active  air — in  a  word,  with  sea-air 
— Dr.  Richardson  said  this  plan  was  by  far  the  most  effective 
of  any  he  had  known.  A  nurse  could  put  the  apparatus  into 
action  at  once,  and  could  deodorize,  hour  by  hour,  according  to 
the  directions  of  the  medical  practitioner. — Amer.  Journ.  Med. 
Sci.y  Oct.,  1865,  from  Med.  Times  and  Gaz.,  Aug.  19,  1865. 
BEE  BKEAD  AS  A  DIURETIC. 
Dr.  Jas.  S.  Whitmire  states  (The  Chicago  Medical  Examiner, 
September,  1865)  that  he  has  found  the  bee  bread*  to  be  a  most 
powerful  diuretic.  He  made  the  discovery  accidentally.  Hav- 
ing bought  a  quantity  of  honey  in  the  comb,  he  feasted  liberally 
on  it  with  his  family  for  four  or  five  weeks,  and  noticed  that  his 
secretion  of  urine  was  largely  increased.  Fearing  that  his  kid- 
neys were  diseased,  he  examined  for  albumen  without  finding  any, 
and  afterwards  for  sugar  by  the  taste,  when  the  taste  of  bee 
bread  was  detected,  and  its  odor  was  also  distinct.  He  then 
learned  that  his  family  was  similarly  affected. 
To  verify  his  suspicion  as  to  the  cause  of  his  increased  urinary 
secretion,  he  selected,  he  says,  "some  of  the  oldest  comb  that 
contained  the  greatest  quantity  of  the  bread,  and  separated  it 
from  the  honey  and  comb  ;  then,  after  abstaining  a  week  from 
the  use  of  my  favorite  sweet,  and  getting  quite  over  my  renal 
disease,  as  well  as  my  unnecessary  alarm,  I  partook  of  the  bread, 
without  the  luxury  of  the  honey,  to  the  extent  of  3j  three  times 
per  day,  when,  as  I  was  expecting,  back  came  the  enormous  se- 
cretion, but  this  time  producing  an  entirely  different  effect  upon 
my  mind,  so  that  I  was  now  prepared  to  investigate  the  effects 
a  little  more  at  length.  I  continued  taking  3iij  per  day,  for 
about  a  week,  during  which  time  I  voided  from  four  to  six  fluid 
pounds  per  day,  the  difference  being  the  greatest  when  I  was  at 
*  The  pollen  of  flowers  collected  by  bees  as  food  for  their  young — Ed. 
