ACTIVE  PRINCIPLES  OF  HELLEBORUS. 
245 
or  that  drained  from  the  new  comb.  This,  in  the  Dorsetshire 
specimen,  was  colorless  and  limpid,  but  when  prepared  from  new 
and  old  combs  by  the  action  of  heat  the  honey  becomes  changed, 
and  candies  sooner,  although  a  jar  of  Dorsetshire  honey  thus  pre- 
pared at  the  end  of  July,  1864,  was  sufficiently  fluid  to  be  poured 
from  the  jar  in  the  following  March. 
But  the  question  still  remains  unanswered,  "  Why  do  bees 
work  in  the  dark  ?  "  In  reply  to  this  question  from  the  bees' 
point  of  view,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  bees  know  noth- 
ing of  the  physical  property  of  transparency  ;  they  -  argue  that 
the  path  by  which  light  enters  will  also  admit  their  enemies. 
The  poor  fly  that  knocks  his  head  against  the  pane  of  glass  will 
never  understand  why  he  cannot  get  through  it ;  and  the  bee, 
with  all  his  sagacity,  will  not  appreciate  his  security  under  a 
transparent  hive.  But  it  is  not  true  that  honey  does  not  solidify 
in  the  hive.  The  volume  of  the  "Naturalists'  Library  "  from 
which  we  have  already  quoted,  states  (p.  119)  that  the  heat  and 
vapour  of  the  hive  are  injurious  to  the  honey,  and  that  "in  very 
severe  seasons  it  is  sometimes  candied." — London  Chem.  News, 
March  2,  1866. 
,  King's  College,  London,  February  17. 
THE  ACTIVE  PRINCIPLES  OF  HELLEBORUS. 
The  physiological  experiments  hitherto  instituted  with  helle- 
bore and  its  various  preparations,  have  only  been  made  on  ani- 
mals, and  as  it  appears,  up  to  within  a  few  years  ago,  with  much 
uncertainty  as  to  the  species  employed  by  the  experimenters. 
The  older  statements  probably  refer  all  to  Helleborus  viridis. 
Vulpian,  Koelliker,  Pelikan,  and  others,  assume  an  immediate 
tendency  to  the  heart,  Schroff  also  an  irritating  narcotic  action. 
Marme  and  Husemann,  who  have  lately  separated  several  proxi- 
mate principles  of  IT.  viridus,  niger  and  fcetidus,  make  the  sub- 
joined statements  with  reference  to  the  physiological  action  of 
those  principles. 
The  root  and  lower  leaves  of  the  three  species  named  contain 
originally  two  non- volatile  active  principles,  of  the  nature  of  glu- 
cosides,  to  which  the  authors  have  given  the  names  helleborein 
and  helleborin  ;  in  addition  H.  foetidus  probably  also  contains  a 
