Sting Of The Bee

The chemical and toxic properties of the poison of the honeybee have been a subject for long study by a Germán scientist, Dr. Joseph Zanger. During his investigation Dr. Zanger employed 25,000 bees. He f onnd that the f resh poison . is clear, like water, of an acid reaction, bitter taste and of a. fine aromatic odor. On evaporating and drying at a temperatura of 100 degrees centigrade (212 degrees F.) a gummy residue is left. It is soluble in water; with alcohol it forras an emulsionlike mixture. The aromatic odor is due to a volatile substance, which disappears on evaporation and is not poisonous. The poisonous constituent is not destroyed by short boiling nor by drying and heating the residue to 212 degrees F. nor by the diluted acids or alkalis. Dr. Zanger has provea the existence of formic acid, but he has also proved that that is not the poisonous principie. The latter is an organic base, soluble, ■with difficulty, in water, but kept in solution by an acid. On the healthy skin neither the bee poison nor a 2 per cent eolution of the poisonous principie has ■ any effect, but they act as powerful irritants on the mucuous membranes. His tests made on rabbits and other animáis show that when the poison is brought in contact with the eye there follow lachrymation, hyperemia, chejnosis and croupous membrane or conjunctiva. The general condition is also aflected; the animáis become melancholy, take no f ood, but are very thirsty, and the urine shows small amounts of albumen.1 -