Honey VS Sugar
Honey contains about 1600 calories (calories is the amount of heat which is necessary to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius) to the pound and is at the head, in this respect, of all other natural foods, far exceeding meat, eggs, milk, grains and vegetables. The date is the only edible substance which surpasses honey in calories.
The caloric value of honey nearly equals that of cane-sugar (1800 cal.) but in every other respect it is far superior. If honey contained no water its caloric value would be practically the same as that of cane-sugar. A tablespoonful of honey weighs about an ounce and provides the body with 100 calories. Honey does not contain any harmful chemicals and is entirely utilized by the digestive tract. Not more than one two-hundredth part is wasted. Commercial or white sugar, made from sugar-cane, beets, corn, etc., is submitted to several complicated boiling procedures during the process of manufacture. The organic acids, protein, nitrogen elements, fats, enzymes and vitamins are extracted or destroyed; on the other hand, hydrochloric, phosphoric and sulphuric acids, lime and other foreign substances are added. While honey is Nature's own sweet, untouched by human art, sugar is a concentrated, denatured and polluted substitute, a produce, as a rule, of sugar-cane, robbed by superheating of most of its natural and valuable constituents. Honey and other simple or natural sugars, like that in dates, figs, raisins, etc., are live physiological sugars which contain the germs of life, while industrial sugars are anti-physiological, dead or, as a matter of fact, murdered sweets. Brown sugar contains some minerals, but white sugar is entirely demineralized because it will not crystallize if any minerals remain. The first step in the manufacture of sugar is to neutralize the free acids of the cane-juice. Cane-juice is quite dark in color because of its mineral constituents. To remove the sugar from the cane-juice it is treated with the fumes of burning sulphur or heated with bisulphide of lime. The process in industrial language is called "defecation". The lime neutralizes all acids and prevents the cane-sugar from changing into an uncrystallizable invert sugar.
Clarence W. Leib, in Eat, Drink, and be Healthy, remarks that sugar undermines the nation's health and that the best sugars are simple sugars, liberally supplied by nature in honey, fruits and vegetables. They require little digestive effort for assimilation. White sugar depresses the appetite, irritates the stomach, produces heart-burn, acid fermentation, gastric catarrh, indigestion, exhausts the pancreatic activity and thus leads to diabetes. The ravages of artificial sugar increase in proportion to the degree of its refinement. Refined sugar is not only irritating to the intestinal tract but to the skin. Grocers and people who handle sugar often suffer from skin eruptions.
No better authority can be quoted than Dr. Banting, the discoverer of insulin, with regard to the causes of diabetes. "In the United States the incidence of diabetes has increased proportionately with the per capita consumption of cane-sugar. One cannot help but conclude that in the heating and recrystallization of the natural sugar-cane something is altered which leaves the refined product a dangerous foodstuff." (Edinb. Med. J. 36, Jan. 18, 1929.)
Dr. Banting comments on the incidence of diabetes among the many wealthy Spaniards in Panama, who eat large quantities of cane-sugar and even cook their food in sugar syrup. Diabetes among this class is surprisingly high. The effect of the ingestion of cane-sugar is even more startling in India where there is no diabetes among the poor but among the wealthy classes over fifty years of age, who indulge in sugar, about 40% are diabetics.
That sugar is an important contributory factor in producing diabetes was best proven during the World War when the disease was not as prevalent in the United States. This can only be rationally interpreted as due to the lessened consumption of white sugar during that period of time, long enough to justify the correctness of the statistical data. The subsidence of diabetes in belligerent foreign countries was even more manifest. During prohibition the sugar consumption in the United States increased over 30%, and diabetes in the same proportion. The parallel advance was disrupted only when insulin was discovered. According to Stefansson the Eskimos had neither constipation, stomach or dental troubles while on an exclusive meat diet but since the use of devitalized sugars and starches these diseases have become prevalent.
If the Food Section of the United States Department of Agri-culture would not respect the "big interests" so much, but would faithfully and meticulously discharge its obligation toward food control, sanitation and the protection of health, it certainly would prohibit the manufacture of refined sugar and of white flour, both of which are low-grade, denatured, dealkalinized fuels, robbed of all vital elements. Laboratory experiments have also proved that animals live longer without food than when fed on refined sugar and white flour. The nutritive part and vital force of grain is gluten, which is in the bran, and therefore should not be re-moved. Of course, the millers know that degerminated products are less perishable. The patriarchal device of "braying" the grain (brayed, bread), is today only a matter of history; the ancients ate the vitamins, we write and read about them. The flour from which some white breads are baked is not only devitalized and devitaminized but, to look better, it is bleached and artificially matured by chemicals, e.g., potassium bromide, chlorine, nitrogen trioxide, benzoyl peroxide, etc.
Dr. E. V. McCollum, Professor of Chemical Hygiene,. School of Hygiene and Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, addressing the Northern Ohio Dental Association's seventieth anniversary convention at Cleveland, Ohio, said that the American people ought to be ashamed in permitting two atrocities to be put over on them. He referred in particular to white flour and refined sugar. McCollum said that he sometimes wondered which of the two evils is greater.
Recently one of the milling companies advertised a "wheat germ product" one dollar a pound, as an addition to diets, to replace vitamins B, G and E and valuable mineral salts which are taken out from the wheat during the process of manufacturing white flour. First these vital elements are removed, then, realizing the faux pas, they are sold separately. In the good old days only the chaff was separated from the wheat but in a scientific era all things must be changed.
Sugar is just as habit-forming as narcotics. Sugar contains calories which artificially create temporary energy but it is not a food because it is without nutritive value and not only does not benefit the tissues of the organism but harms them. The use, misuse and abuse of refined sugars (in the shape of candy or in any other form) is a modern nutritional disaster. We employ these sugars not with the purpose of obtaining strength but simply for gratification of an unhygienic and illogical craving for sweets. The Anglo-Saxon races head the list of sugar habitués. Napoleon craved and incessantly munched chocolates and it is no wonder that he had to get up nightly and thrust a finger into his throat to relieve himself of excessive gastric juice. As we know, he died from a perforation of the stomach.
The writer is firmly convinced that if the youth of the country would eat good old-fashioned rye-bread, the kind which mother used to bake, and not highly praised (of course, only in advertisements) proprietary breads, and would consume natural fruit sugars, like honey, dates, figs, raisins, grapes and other sweet fruits, instead of cheap candy, their physical defects would not be so manifest, as exposed by the staggering revelations of 1917. In spite of the lowered physical standards that had to be instituted then, less than half of the young men were found fit for military duty. So let us be better prepared for the next war. Sir William Osier's remark that any disease which Nature can not cure will remain uncured pertains also, by proper application, to all denatured foods. It is too bad that the term "denatured" is almost exclusively used today only for the designation of a certain type of alcohol. If exploitation can triumph over Nature, it is time—at least—to be aware of it.
Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, former chief chemist of the Department of Agriculture and Director of the Bureau of Foods, Sanitation and Health, in a letter to the American Honey Institute, wrote thus about the "honey matter": "Unfortunately, the amount of honey that is now produced in the United States, or that may or can be produced therein, is entirely insufficient to supply the wants of even a small percentage of our people. If we stress the honey matter too prominently we may do injury, not' to the bees nor the keepers, nor the honey merchants, but to those who prefer honey to other sweets. I am one of that kind. I get every year about sixty pounds. If we urge everybody to use honey instead of sugar, we will have the same condition that now exists with codliver oil, calf's liver and agar.* A few years ago agar was quite cheap. I with others have been urging people to use agar to avoid constipation. It now costs over $3.00 a pound. In the same way the craze for liver to cure anemia has greatly advanced the cost of that commodity. I am a great believer in honey, both on account of its flavor and because I think it is far more whole-some than refined white sugar. I use it every morning in my coffee, of which I drink one cup a day."
Dr. Wiley also declared saccharin a harmful substance. When the ketchup manufacturers and canners wished to add saccharin to their products, he protested. During a hearing, the late Theodore Roosevelt, at that time President of the United States, was amazed to hear that saccharin was objectionable. "You are telling me, Dr. Wiley, that saccharin is injurious to health?" Roosevelt asked. "Yes, Mr. President, I do tell you that," answered Wiley. The President remarked: "Well, Dr. Rixey (at the time White House physician) makes me take it every day." Wiley was embarrassed and explained: "Probably he thinks that you are threatened with diabetes and considered it better for you than sugar." The manufacture of saccharin has been forbidden in Germany and Italy.
What effect refined sugars have on the alarmingly increasing prevalence of arthritis is another important question to solve. The fact alone that arthritics, who suffer from delayed sugar removal, are legatees to all the scourges of this malady, while diabetics who cannot digest glucose and eliminate it from their systems are almost entirely free from symptoms of arthritis, deserves consideration. The main complaint of diabetics is lack of energy, a complication with which the arthritics, who are perfectly well otherwise, are not concerned. This prevailing contrast between the two groups could be rationally attributed to some unknown conditionality superinduced by two divergent functions of the respective organisms.
Dr. Serge Voronoff was evidently not a believer in sugar when he made the statement that the human race could easily extend its period of life to 120 years by eliminating from its diet sugar, white flour and salt.
England was one of the first nations to assail the mischiefs and ravages of refined sugar and to raise her voice against its use by calling attention to its harmful effects. According to records, the art of refining sugar was first practiced in England in 1544. John Gardiner and Sir William Chester were the proprietors of the first two "sugar-houses" in England. The introduction of sugar immediately raised the question of its desirability, and a great part of the population feared that it might have bad effects. Sir Thomas Mildmay, in 1596, petitioned Queen Elizabeth for the exclusive right to refine sugar because he believed that frauds were practiced in the process of refining.
Theophilus Garencieres, a physician (1647), was the first to attack sugar in its infancy. He thought sugar created Tabes Anglica and also caused consumption of the lungs because the heating quality of sugar was "not a little" injurious to the lungs.
Thomas Willis, the celebrated English physician, was next to attack it in 1674. He thought that sugar largely contributed to the immense increase of scurvy. He argued: "For it plainly appears by the chemical analysis of sugar that this concrete consists of an acrid and corrosive salt, tempered with a portion of sulphur." He referred to eminent authors who attributed the cause and frequency of consumption of the lungs in England to the immoderate use of sugar. Scurvy made great ravages in England in the seventeenth century, so did consumption of the lungs and scrofula. Angelus Sala also attributed many ailments to the abuse of sugar; among them, loss of appetite, blackness and loosening of the teeth, offensive breath, colic, lax bowels, also bilious, scorbutic and hysterical complaints. It was observed that sugar produced worms in children. It seems that Garencieres and Willis were the founders of the wide-spread cult, known in England as Antisaccharites.
Charles Butler, in Feminin' Monarch?, 1632, comparing honey with sugar, remarks: "In respect of the marvellous efficacy which fine and pure honey hath in preserving health, that gross and earthy stuff is no whit comparable to this celestial nectar."
It is the prodigy of knowledge not only to discriminate between similarities of things different but also between divergencies of things resembling one another (Medical trickology).
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Poisonous Honey
Poisonous Honey
Poisonous honey is often mentioned in ancient literature. Xenophon, in the Anabasis, describes the "Retreat of the Ten Thou-sand." When the army was returning from Asia to Greece, while passing through Trebizond the soldiers discovered that the woods were filled with honeycombs which they eagerly consumed. As a result, they all went "off their heads," suffered from vomiting and diarrhea, and most of them were unable to stand on their legs. Some dropped to the ground, hundreds of them lay prostrate, apparently dead, others appeared to be violently drunk or in a fit of madness but all recovered after three or four days and acted like convalescents after a severe sickness.
The toxicity of the honey was attributed to poisonous plants. Rhododendron and azalea are plentiful in that section. Andromedotoxin, a poisonous glucoside, will produce symptoms similar to those from which the army suffered. Archangelsky discovered two new bodies in the rhododendron plant, rhododendrin and ericolin, both belonging to the camphor group, which have a strong toxic effect.
Similar observations were made in the Caucausus, near Batum, where rhododendron and azalea also grow. Honey growers in that section do not use honey in the spring when these plants are in bloom. Ssanjuk, on the other hand, doubts the toxic effect of these plants and asserts that the poisonings are due to the fact that when honey is collected in the woods from hollow trees many bees are crushed and the effect is due to the venom of the bees, which the honey contains. As a matter of fact, he noticed that such honeys were sometimes poisonous, other times not. The writer has to contradict this latter allegation because bee venom, even in large quantities, is readily destroyed by the saliva and gastric ferments.
There are also other plants which yield noxious substances.
Honey collected from goat's bane is harmful. H. M. Fraser wrote that such honey never thickens, is dark red, has a strange smell, is heavier than other honeys, and often causes sneezing. Those who eat it become bathed in perspiration, throw themselves on the ground and are relieved only by repeated doses of a mixture of old mead, rue and salted fish, which produces vomiting. On the Island of Sardinia honeys collected by the bees from certain plants will produce a painful, spasmodic laugh (sardonic laugh). On the Isle of Corsica, honey gathered from the ever-green yew is bitter and not fit to eat, a fact which Virgil mentions. Martial also alludes to the poor quality of certain Corsican plants. "You ask for lively epigrams and propose lifeless subjects. What can I do, Caecilanus? You expect Hyblean or Hymethian honey to be produced and yet offer the Attic bee nothing but Corsican thyme." (Epigrams Bk. XI. Ep. 42). Ovid refers to honeys collected from hemlock as infamous. Galen mentions an incident when two physicians, tasting honey at the open market in Rome, fell to the ground and soon afterwards died. In Heidelberg and its surroundings, it is well known that chestnut honey has a strong hypnotic effect. The bees collect this honey from the blooms of the chestnut trees (castania vesca).
If an extracted sting apparatus, which, as a rule, is accompanied by a poison bag, is imbedded in honey, it may inflict a wound hours or even days later. The venom is volatile, but its strength is well preserved in honey. Sporadic cases have been reported where buried stings were found in broken combs and persons eating such honey were injured in their mouths. A detached sting, coming in contact with body surfaces, may work automatically without the bee, and dig itself into the layers of the skin or of the mucuous membranes, emptying the contents of the poison bag into the wound.
The "mad" honey (maenomenon) of Pontus was often mentioned. Aelian (V. 42) commented that honey of Pontus made people mad but cured epilepsy. Its toxicity was also attributed to rhododendron and azalea, with which the woods of Pontus abound. Pliny described a mountain on the Island of Crete, nine miles in circumference. The honey produced there would not be touched even by flies but it was highly valued as a medicine. Poisonous honeys are also found in certain districts of Persia.
Dr. Barton reported (American Philosophical Transactions, 1790, Vol. V.) that in the autumn and winter of the year 1790 many people died in Pennsylvania from the effects of wild honey, collected from kalmia (lamb-kill) plants. Several fatal cases were reported at the same time in New York State, caused by wild honey made from the flowers of laurel shrubs. Honey collected by the bees from mountain laurel is often poisonous. Even today the beekeepers in North and South Carolina first try the effect of laurel honey on the family dog. If the dog, after indulging in suspicious honey, shows symptoms of staggering and has a glazed look, the honey is condemned.
Maladies caused by the consumption of honey are, as a matter of fact, not attributable to the honey itself. The bees, besides gathering nectar, collect a certain amount of pollen which they deposit in the brood cells for their young. Pollen is a protein substance which the brood requires for building new tissues. After the brood is developed it will consume only honey, that is carbohydrates, to generate energy. A full-grown bee does not re-place tissues, consequently does not require protein. The pollen, called bee-bread, a protein substance, is exposed to fouling and decomposition and also to formation of toxins through bacterial invasion. In a word, some ailments are produced not by honey but by protein; they are plain and simple cases of ptomaine poisoning.
In modern honey production, of course, this cannot happen. The bees do not store protein in the small upper combs, called supers, but in the larger brood frames. The honey in the supers is meant for human consumption. To prevent the queen from laying eggs in these small combs the two sections of the hive are separated by a screen through which there is a passage, large enough to permit the entrance of the smaller worker bees but which prevents the queen, on account of her massive figure, from going through it. If honey is extracted by centrifugal force even from the brood cells, only the liquid honey is ejected and the bee-bread will remain in the combs. The contention made by some research workers that poisoning from eating honey is sometimes due to bee venom is all wrong. The venom, if there is any in honey, would be easily destroyed, as already mentioned, by digestive ferments.
It is noteworthy that the flowers of certain plants are not poisonous to the bees, but the honey made from these plants is harmful. Other plants again, e.g. poison-ash, are liable to kill a whole hive of bees. (Certain kalmia leaves are fatal even to pheasants.) Some plants affect young bees and not the older ones. Dead bees are found occasionally on tulips, though tulips do not secrete nectar. Bees collect nectar from poison ivy with-out injury to themselves, neither is such honey harmful. All in all, poisonings with wild honeys are rare, since bees carefully select the wholesome plants and resort to other sources only when in utmost need. Bees will avoid plants like wormwood, rhubarb, aconite, jasmine, senna, wood-laurel and rhododendron; they never visit these flowers except when there are no others obtain-able. Honeys collected from the blooms of onions and leeks (the national emblem of the Welsh) are not unhealthy but their aroma is transmitted—not to the best advantage. Chinquapin honey is bitter as gall, but not harmful. The beautiful and fragrant yellow jessamine that turns the color of the Southern swamps to gold in the springtime has the reputation of yielding poisonous honey.
Poisonous honey is often mentioned in ancient literature. Xenophon, in the Anabasis, describes the "Retreat of the Ten Thou-sand." When the army was returning from Asia to Greece, while passing through Trebizond the soldiers discovered that the woods were filled with honeycombs which they eagerly consumed. As a result, they all went "off their heads," suffered from vomiting and diarrhea, and most of them were unable to stand on their legs. Some dropped to the ground, hundreds of them lay prostrate, apparently dead, others appeared to be violently drunk or in a fit of madness but all recovered after three or four days and acted like convalescents after a severe sickness.
The toxicity of the honey was attributed to poisonous plants. Rhododendron and azalea are plentiful in that section. Andromedotoxin, a poisonous glucoside, will produce symptoms similar to those from which the army suffered. Archangelsky discovered two new bodies in the rhododendron plant, rhododendrin and ericolin, both belonging to the camphor group, which have a strong toxic effect.
Similar observations were made in the Caucausus, near Batum, where rhododendron and azalea also grow. Honey growers in that section do not use honey in the spring when these plants are in bloom. Ssanjuk, on the other hand, doubts the toxic effect of these plants and asserts that the poisonings are due to the fact that when honey is collected in the woods from hollow trees many bees are crushed and the effect is due to the venom of the bees, which the honey contains. As a matter of fact, he noticed that such honeys were sometimes poisonous, other times not. The writer has to contradict this latter allegation because bee venom, even in large quantities, is readily destroyed by the saliva and gastric ferments.
There are also other plants which yield noxious substances.
Honey collected from goat's bane is harmful. H. M. Fraser wrote that such honey never thickens, is dark red, has a strange smell, is heavier than other honeys, and often causes sneezing. Those who eat it become bathed in perspiration, throw themselves on the ground and are relieved only by repeated doses of a mixture of old mead, rue and salted fish, which produces vomiting. On the Island of Sardinia honeys collected by the bees from certain plants will produce a painful, spasmodic laugh (sardonic laugh). On the Isle of Corsica, honey gathered from the ever-green yew is bitter and not fit to eat, a fact which Virgil mentions. Martial also alludes to the poor quality of certain Corsican plants. "You ask for lively epigrams and propose lifeless subjects. What can I do, Caecilanus? You expect Hyblean or Hymethian honey to be produced and yet offer the Attic bee nothing but Corsican thyme." (Epigrams Bk. XI. Ep. 42). Ovid refers to honeys collected from hemlock as infamous. Galen mentions an incident when two physicians, tasting honey at the open market in Rome, fell to the ground and soon afterwards died. In Heidelberg and its surroundings, it is well known that chestnut honey has a strong hypnotic effect. The bees collect this honey from the blooms of the chestnut trees (castania vesca).
If an extracted sting apparatus, which, as a rule, is accompanied by a poison bag, is imbedded in honey, it may inflict a wound hours or even days later. The venom is volatile, but its strength is well preserved in honey. Sporadic cases have been reported where buried stings were found in broken combs and persons eating such honey were injured in their mouths. A detached sting, coming in contact with body surfaces, may work automatically without the bee, and dig itself into the layers of the skin or of the mucuous membranes, emptying the contents of the poison bag into the wound.
The "mad" honey (maenomenon) of Pontus was often mentioned. Aelian (V. 42) commented that honey of Pontus made people mad but cured epilepsy. Its toxicity was also attributed to rhododendron and azalea, with which the woods of Pontus abound. Pliny described a mountain on the Island of Crete, nine miles in circumference. The honey produced there would not be touched even by flies but it was highly valued as a medicine. Poisonous honeys are also found in certain districts of Persia.
Dr. Barton reported (American Philosophical Transactions, 1790, Vol. V.) that in the autumn and winter of the year 1790 many people died in Pennsylvania from the effects of wild honey, collected from kalmia (lamb-kill) plants. Several fatal cases were reported at the same time in New York State, caused by wild honey made from the flowers of laurel shrubs. Honey collected by the bees from mountain laurel is often poisonous. Even today the beekeepers in North and South Carolina first try the effect of laurel honey on the family dog. If the dog, after indulging in suspicious honey, shows symptoms of staggering and has a glazed look, the honey is condemned.
Maladies caused by the consumption of honey are, as a matter of fact, not attributable to the honey itself. The bees, besides gathering nectar, collect a certain amount of pollen which they deposit in the brood cells for their young. Pollen is a protein substance which the brood requires for building new tissues. After the brood is developed it will consume only honey, that is carbohydrates, to generate energy. A full-grown bee does not re-place tissues, consequently does not require protein. The pollen, called bee-bread, a protein substance, is exposed to fouling and decomposition and also to formation of toxins through bacterial invasion. In a word, some ailments are produced not by honey but by protein; they are plain and simple cases of ptomaine poisoning.
In modern honey production, of course, this cannot happen. The bees do not store protein in the small upper combs, called supers, but in the larger brood frames. The honey in the supers is meant for human consumption. To prevent the queen from laying eggs in these small combs the two sections of the hive are separated by a screen through which there is a passage, large enough to permit the entrance of the smaller worker bees but which prevents the queen, on account of her massive figure, from going through it. If honey is extracted by centrifugal force even from the brood cells, only the liquid honey is ejected and the bee-bread will remain in the combs. The contention made by some research workers that poisoning from eating honey is sometimes due to bee venom is all wrong. The venom, if there is any in honey, would be easily destroyed, as already mentioned, by digestive ferments.
It is noteworthy that the flowers of certain plants are not poisonous to the bees, but the honey made from these plants is harmful. Other plants again, e.g. poison-ash, are liable to kill a whole hive of bees. (Certain kalmia leaves are fatal even to pheasants.) Some plants affect young bees and not the older ones. Dead bees are found occasionally on tulips, though tulips do not secrete nectar. Bees collect nectar from poison ivy with-out injury to themselves, neither is such honey harmful. All in all, poisonings with wild honeys are rare, since bees carefully select the wholesome plants and resort to other sources only when in utmost need. Bees will avoid plants like wormwood, rhubarb, aconite, jasmine, senna, wood-laurel and rhododendron; they never visit these flowers except when there are no others obtain-able. Honeys collected from the blooms of onions and leeks (the national emblem of the Welsh) are not unhealthy but their aroma is transmitted—not to the best advantage. Chinquapin honey is bitter as gall, but not harmful. The beautiful and fragrant yellow jessamine that turns the color of the Southern swamps to gold in the springtime has the reputation of yielding poisonous honey.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Too Much Honey
Too Much Honey
The maxim, "too much of a good thing," applies also to honey. In Prov. XXV. 16, we find: "It is not good to eat much honey—as for men to search for their own glory, is not glory." In Prov. XXV. 27, there is another suggestion: "Hast thou found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith and vomit it." It is an old Latin saying, Qui mel multum comedit, non est ei bonum. (He who eats much honey does himself no good.) The Crusaders who followed Edward I to Palestine died in large numbers from excessive heat and from eating too much honey and fruit.
Galen advised mixing honey with other food, called "sweet-meat," which would not only nourish but also impart a good color. An anonymous writer in the Planudian Appendix suggested that honey should not be eaten alone, and that "too much honey is gall." Taken by itself, without other food, honey would make one lean rather than fat.
People who have glutted themselves with honey will turn against it. As a matter of fact, overindulgence in any food may produce a permanent aversion. Medical science calls this an allergic state and often presumes that such victims have been sensitized to the substance. In medical literature there are in-numerable reports of such cases. Hutchinson and Duke describe abdominal allergy due to honey. A man twenty-seven years old consumed a large quantity of honey and afterwards the slightest bit produced severe abdominal pains. Rolleston mentions a case of migraine after the least consumption of honey, due to previous indiscretions. Cane-sugar, barley, oatmeal, butter, milk, eggs, in fact any food substance may cause similar reactions. As already stated, sensitivity toward honey is least common among all food allergies.
There are many mysterious circumstances which may influence a like or dislike of honey. Dr. G. H. Stover reported a case in the Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin (November, 1898) which has immunological as well as neurological interest:
"A woman thirty-five years old, single, consulted me for a rather unusual swelling on her right cheek, following a bee-sting injury received several days before. Her face was considerably swollen and she felt some unpleasant constitutional symptoms. Five days later, she had fully recovered, when she made the very interesting statement that she never before had been able to eat honey, even the smell of it nauseated her, but after she was stung, developed a craving for it and ate it with complete satisfaction." Stover finishes his report: "Will some of the immunization experimenters throw a light on this occurrence?"
The author of the present volume can corroborate Dr. Stover's observation. During his extensive experience in administering bee stings to arthritics and rheumatics he has been frequently surprised by the voluntary reports of patients that they had developed an expressed longing for honey which did not exist previously. This actuality could be ascribed to the effect of bee venom, which, by increasing considerably the blood circulation, induces a consequent craving for an energy-producing substance.
The maxim, "too much of a good thing," applies also to honey. In Prov. XXV. 16, we find: "It is not good to eat much honey—as for men to search for their own glory, is not glory." In Prov. XXV. 27, there is another suggestion: "Hast thou found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith and vomit it." It is an old Latin saying, Qui mel multum comedit, non est ei bonum. (He who eats much honey does himself no good.) The Crusaders who followed Edward I to Palestine died in large numbers from excessive heat and from eating too much honey and fruit.
Galen advised mixing honey with other food, called "sweet-meat," which would not only nourish but also impart a good color. An anonymous writer in the Planudian Appendix suggested that honey should not be eaten alone, and that "too much honey is gall." Taken by itself, without other food, honey would make one lean rather than fat.
People who have glutted themselves with honey will turn against it. As a matter of fact, overindulgence in any food may produce a permanent aversion. Medical science calls this an allergic state and often presumes that such victims have been sensitized to the substance. In medical literature there are in-numerable reports of such cases. Hutchinson and Duke describe abdominal allergy due to honey. A man twenty-seven years old consumed a large quantity of honey and afterwards the slightest bit produced severe abdominal pains. Rolleston mentions a case of migraine after the least consumption of honey, due to previous indiscretions. Cane-sugar, barley, oatmeal, butter, milk, eggs, in fact any food substance may cause similar reactions. As already stated, sensitivity toward honey is least common among all food allergies.
There are many mysterious circumstances which may influence a like or dislike of honey. Dr. G. H. Stover reported a case in the Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin (November, 1898) which has immunological as well as neurological interest:
"A woman thirty-five years old, single, consulted me for a rather unusual swelling on her right cheek, following a bee-sting injury received several days before. Her face was considerably swollen and she felt some unpleasant constitutional symptoms. Five days later, she had fully recovered, when she made the very interesting statement that she never before had been able to eat honey, even the smell of it nauseated her, but after she was stung, developed a craving for it and ate it with complete satisfaction." Stover finishes his report: "Will some of the immunization experimenters throw a light on this occurrence?"
The author of the present volume can corroborate Dr. Stover's observation. During his extensive experience in administering bee stings to arthritics and rheumatics he has been frequently surprised by the voluntary reports of patients that they had developed an expressed longing for honey which did not exist previously. This actuality could be ascribed to the effect of bee venom, which, by increasing considerably the blood circulation, induces a consequent craving for an energy-producing substance.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Medicinal Value Of Mead And Of Other Honey Drinks
Medicinal Value Of Mead And Of Other Honey Drinks
HYDROMEL, i.e., honey and water, made under the special direction of Pliny and Galen, was for centuries not only a popular drink but a salutary medicine. Pliny was a firm believer in hydromel; he thought that "it is an extremely wholesome beverage for invalids who take nothing but light diet; it invigorates the body, is soothing to the mouth and stomach, and by its refreshing properties allays feverish heats. It is well suited for persons of chilly temperament or of a weak and pusillanimous constitution, ... diminishing also the asperities of the mind." According to Pliny, anger, sadness and all other afflictions of the mind can be modified by diet. OXYMEL, made of honey, vinegar, sea salt and rain-water, was in great vogue in olden times, when it was considered an infallible cure for sciatica, gout, and rheumatic ailments. It was also used to "gargarize with in Squinancy." There were many other preparations made with honey. RHODOMEL was a mixture of roses and honey; OMPHACOMEL was made from fermented grape-juice and honey; and OENOMEL from unfermented grape-juice and honey. This last combination was used for gout and "nerves." Clysma of honey and water was considered a remedy of merit for cleansing the bowels. The ancient Greek conditum was honey mixed with wine and pepper. It was a popular medicine for all kinds of digestive ailments. Most ancients attributed to honey-drinks a soporiferous effect.
Butler thought that the virtues of mead were about the same as those of honey. He advocated old mead as "a wine most agreeable to the stomach, as it restores appetite, opens the pas-sages for the Spirit and breath, and softens the bellies." He also thought that "it was good for those who have coughs, quartan ague and cachexia and that it helps to guard against diseases of the brain (Epilepsie or falling evil) for which wine is pernicious." The attainment of old age he attributed to its use.
For many centuries mead was considered a veritable elixir vitae. Its principal medicinal value was in kidney ailments, as an excel-lent diuretic without disastrous effect on the kidneys. As for gout and rheumatism, mead ranked not only as a curative but also as a preventive medicine. It was widely used as a good digestive and laxative.
VINEGAR is another profitable by-product of honey and it far excels in quality all similar products, not excepting wine vinegar. Inferior types of honey can be well utilized for this purpose. Any liquid containing sugar can be used for making vinegar. Five parts of water to one part of honey exposed to acidous fermentation will produce vinegar. It should be boiled for about I0 minutes in a jug or glass container (never metal). Some minerals and a little yeast can be added to hasten the process. Left in a barrel, in a warm room, the bung-hole closed with cheesecloth, the fermentation will be complete in several weeks.
Honey-vinegar, pure or mixed with honey (oxymel), also had wide employment in ancient therapeutics both as a medicine and as an external application.
HYDROMEL, i.e., honey and water, made under the special direction of Pliny and Galen, was for centuries not only a popular drink but a salutary medicine. Pliny was a firm believer in hydromel; he thought that "it is an extremely wholesome beverage for invalids who take nothing but light diet; it invigorates the body, is soothing to the mouth and stomach, and by its refreshing properties allays feverish heats. It is well suited for persons of chilly temperament or of a weak and pusillanimous constitution, ... diminishing also the asperities of the mind." According to Pliny, anger, sadness and all other afflictions of the mind can be modified by diet. OXYMEL, made of honey, vinegar, sea salt and rain-water, was in great vogue in olden times, when it was considered an infallible cure for sciatica, gout, and rheumatic ailments. It was also used to "gargarize with in Squinancy." There were many other preparations made with honey. RHODOMEL was a mixture of roses and honey; OMPHACOMEL was made from fermented grape-juice and honey; and OENOMEL from unfermented grape-juice and honey. This last combination was used for gout and "nerves." Clysma of honey and water was considered a remedy of merit for cleansing the bowels. The ancient Greek conditum was honey mixed with wine and pepper. It was a popular medicine for all kinds of digestive ailments. Most ancients attributed to honey-drinks a soporiferous effect.
Butler thought that the virtues of mead were about the same as those of honey. He advocated old mead as "a wine most agreeable to the stomach, as it restores appetite, opens the pas-sages for the Spirit and breath, and softens the bellies." He also thought that "it was good for those who have coughs, quartan ague and cachexia and that it helps to guard against diseases of the brain (Epilepsie or falling evil) for which wine is pernicious." The attainment of old age he attributed to its use.
For many centuries mead was considered a veritable elixir vitae. Its principal medicinal value was in kidney ailments, as an excel-lent diuretic without disastrous effect on the kidneys. As for gout and rheumatism, mead ranked not only as a curative but also as a preventive medicine. It was widely used as a good digestive and laxative.
VINEGAR is another profitable by-product of honey and it far excels in quality all similar products, not excepting wine vinegar. Inferior types of honey can be well utilized for this purpose. Any liquid containing sugar can be used for making vinegar. Five parts of water to one part of honey exposed to acidous fermentation will produce vinegar. It should be boiled for about I0 minutes in a jug or glass container (never metal). Some minerals and a little yeast can be added to hasten the process. Left in a barrel, in a warm room, the bung-hole closed with cheesecloth, the fermentation will be complete in several weeks.
Honey-vinegar, pure or mixed with honey (oxymel), also had wide employment in ancient therapeutics both as a medicine and as an external application.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Honey In Surgery
Honey In Surgery
HONEY has a distinct bactericidal power which is mainly due to its hygroscopic property. All living organisms re-quire a certain amount of moisture to maintain their lives. When bacteria come in contact with honey they are deprived of the vital moisture and perish. The acid reaction of honey also renders it an unfavorable medium for the bacteria to grow in. Most micro-organisms which affect the human body are destroyed in honey.
Honey applied to ulcerated surfaces has a unique function. Soon after its application a profuse and intense centrifugal flow of lymph is noticeable and the entire torpid surface of the wound becomes soaked in fluid. This leucocytic lymph collection which honey produces has not only a bactericidal power but the rinsing function of the free-flowing liquid will greatly contribute to the cleansing of the wounds and will stimulate and promote granulation and healing. The ancient Greeks often refer to "epomphalia", a navel ointment made from honey for the newborn. Old mead, which is almost as extinct today as the dodo, was also used as an antiseptic lotion.
The external application of honey has an age-old history. The ancient Egyptians used it as a surgical dressing. The Papyrus Ebers recommended that wounds be covered for four days with linen dipped in honey and incense. They believed that cataracts yielded to treatments with honey. Honey dropped into the eyes was supposed to have cured inflammations and other ailments of the eyelids. To quote the amusing report of Vigerius: "I have cured a Horse stone blind with Honey and Salt and a little crock of a pot mixed. In less than three daies, it bath eaten off a tough filme, and the Horse never complained after." In the July, 1937 issue of the American Bee Journal (page 350) "A Subscriber" from New York State writes as follows: "I had a horse going blind with a white film over his eye which seemed to hurt. His eye was shut and watered. I dipped white honey into his eye with a feather for several nights. In a day or so the film was gone and the eye looked bright and good."
The Chinese and Hindus cover the entire bodies of their small-pox patients with honey to hasten the termination of the disease and also to prevent the formation of scars. Galen thought that "Hony warmes and cleares Wounds and Ulcers, attenuates and discusseth excrescencies in any part of the body." The Talmud recommended honey for ulcerated wounds, especially for extensive sores of animals. Ceromel, made with one part of wax and four parts of honey, is popular in the tropics for ulcers because it never becomes rancid.
During the Middle Ages honey was extensively used in the form of ointments and plasters for boils, wounds, burns and ulcers, plain or mixed with other ingredients. Charles Butler thought that honey "will knit together hollow and crooked ulcers and likewise close other disjoyned flesh." He highly praised the Unguentum Aegyptiacum which was made by boiling honey, vinegar and wintergreen. This plaster, according to Butler, would "open, clean, dry and digest all inflammations and resist putrefaction." Rectal suppositories contained honey and wax. Galen's honey and oil enema was popular for centuries.
Richard Remnant (The History of Bees, London, 1637) had implicit faith in "admirable baths made of honey which are excel-lent for Aches and strong Itches." A friend of his had "a foul itch that he was like a Leper." He cured him in the following manner: He used an empty Wine cask, called a Pipe, and "took out one head" and made a liquor of water and honey, making it pretty strong with honey and "heated it as hot as he could endure to stand in it," and poured it into the Pipe and "caused him to stand in it up to his neck a pretty while." This he did "three days, one after another, and he recovered as clear as ever." He had a like experience with "divers Aches." "If it be renewed every day with a little honey, it will be better."
The rural populations of the European continent, especially that of the Slavic countries, used honey for all kinds of wounds and inflammations. "Honey ointment", consisting of equal portions of honey and white flour, well mixed with a little water, had a wide usage. A good ointment should be more solidified than too liquid. Honey and burnt alum was another popular combination. In croupous diphtheria it was the accepted method of mothers to grip with their fingers a chunk of honey and vigorously rub, as far as they could reach, the throat and air passages of the patients. A honey poultice was also applied around the neck. Several drops of warm honey in the ear was considered an excellent remedy for pain, inflammation and ringing of the ear. Galen remarked: "Hony infused warme by itself wonderfully helps exulcerated ears, especially if they cast forth ill flavours, as also their singings and inflammations." Marcellus Empyricus suggested: "Honey, Butter and Oyle of Roses, of each a like quantity, warme, helps the paine of the ears, dulness of the sight and the white spots in the eyes."
The writer learned through personal communication that honey is still used for trachoma in the form of eyedrops. A Canadian mother related to him that two of her daughters contracted sore eyes while attending school, where there was an epidemic at the time. They were cured in two or three days by dropping honey into their eyes. It took two and three weeks for the other children in the school to get rid of the same trouble. Cataracts of the eyes were reported to have been cured by the same method, drop-ping honey into the eyes three times daily.
Our good friend, the famous globe-trotter Dr. W. E. Aughinbaugh, described an operation he witnessed in Panama, during the construction of the canal. A native Indian surgeon of considerable repute performed a disarticulation of the hip joint. He smoked cigarettes incessantly during the operation, laid them down occasionally, picking them up again with his bloody fingers. After the stump was sutured, the surgeon took from a large pail several handfuls of honey, which he smeared over the wound, covering it subsequently with gauze. He assured Dr. Aughinbaugh that he had never had an infection when he applied a layer of honey over the wound. Dr. Aughinbaugh has seen the natives of the Amazon region "suture" extensive injuries by letting beetles unite the margins of wounds with their robust mandibles. After the heads of the insects were severed, the mandibles remained closed and the wounds were covered with honey mixed with liquid wax. The results were excellent.
It is singular that, though honey was used for thousands of years for treatment of wounds and skin troubles, our modern medical literature ignores the subject. Lately, it seems, honey is gradually regaining its age-old repute and lost popularity. Dr. Zaiss, of Heidelberg, considers honey in the treatment of wounds superior to all other ointments. He has treated several thousand cases of severe infections with honey and could not report a single failure. Dr. Zaiss prefers honey even to tincture of iodine. He dresses the wounds with strips of gauze dipped in honey, and finds the wounds perfectly clean in 24 hours. The sloughs, even deep ones, usually adhere to the dressing material. Dr. Zaiss states that the application causes, at first, a transient smarting but the pain is soon relieved and a cooling sensation supervenes. The healing is remarkably rapid. He suggests a daily change of dressing.
The Germans were always firm believers in the curative power of honey, both internally and externally, as a surgical dressing. It is interesting that honey is now combined in Germany with an-other old popular remedy; namely, cod-liver oil. Pliny highly praised cod-liver oil as a wound dressing (Hist. Nat. 31:27). The Eskimos, Laplanders and the natives of Greenland use cod-liver oil even these days for the dressing of wounds. German surgeons, Zaiss, Sack, Lucke, Buchheister, Löhr, Gundel, Blattner and others, published recently in the medical journals miraculotis results which they obtained through the use of a cod-liver oil ointment called Desitin-Honey salve. Infected wounds, ulcerations, burns, fistulas, boils, carbuncles, felons, etc., are reported to heal in the shortest time. The ointment is supposed to check inflammation, stimulate granulation and remove deep necrotic tissues. Subjectively the ointment is very well tolerated because it alleviates pain and eases tension. The change of dressings is not painful because in twenty-four hours the wound is soaked in a rich exudate of lymph which prevents adherence of the dressing material to the wound and is easily removed. The odor of the ointment is rather pleasant, without a corrigent. It is difficult to say whether the honey or the cod-liver oil is the more helpful ingredient but it seems that it is a fortunate combination. The surgeons advise that, though its function is not scientifically proven and therefore justified, these facts should not interfere with its use. In skin diseases, even in psoriasis, the results obtained were excellent. For frostbites on ears, fingers and toes there is nothing which will take out sooner the frost and swelling than when these parts are wrapped in honey. Verrucae (warts) were reported to have been removed by the overnight application of a honey poultice.
Recently Dr. Charles Brunnich, a surgeon of Switzerland, joined the ranks of those who advocate honey for surgical dressings, especially for contused and badly slashed septic wounds. He quotes the case of a man whose finger was smashed in a grinding machine. The bone of the terminal phalanx of the finger was broken and hung on a skin flap. After wrapping the extremity in honey the finger grew on and rapidly healed. Another man had, in succession, two large carbuncles on the back. While the first carbuncle was operated on by a surgeon and left a deep ugly scar, the second was treated only with honey. The cores rapidly eliminated and the wound left only an insignificant scar.
In the "Alpenlindische Bienenzeitung" (February, 1935) we find the following report from a man: "In the winter of 1933 I heated a boiler of about thirty-five gallons of water. When I opened the cover, it flew with great force against the ceiling. The vapor and hot water poured forth over my unprotected head, over my hands and feet. Some minutes afterward I had violent pains and I believe I would have gone mad if my wife and my daughter had not helped me immediately. They took large pieces of linen, daubed them thickly with honey and put them on my head, neck, hands and feet. Almost instantly the pain ceased. I slept well all night and did not lose a single hair on my head. When the physician came he shook his head and said: `How can such a thing be possible?
HONEY has a distinct bactericidal power which is mainly due to its hygroscopic property. All living organisms re-quire a certain amount of moisture to maintain their lives. When bacteria come in contact with honey they are deprived of the vital moisture and perish. The acid reaction of honey also renders it an unfavorable medium for the bacteria to grow in. Most micro-organisms which affect the human body are destroyed in honey.
Honey applied to ulcerated surfaces has a unique function. Soon after its application a profuse and intense centrifugal flow of lymph is noticeable and the entire torpid surface of the wound becomes soaked in fluid. This leucocytic lymph collection which honey produces has not only a bactericidal power but the rinsing function of the free-flowing liquid will greatly contribute to the cleansing of the wounds and will stimulate and promote granulation and healing. The ancient Greeks often refer to "epomphalia", a navel ointment made from honey for the newborn. Old mead, which is almost as extinct today as the dodo, was also used as an antiseptic lotion.
The external application of honey has an age-old history. The ancient Egyptians used it as a surgical dressing. The Papyrus Ebers recommended that wounds be covered for four days with linen dipped in honey and incense. They believed that cataracts yielded to treatments with honey. Honey dropped into the eyes was supposed to have cured inflammations and other ailments of the eyelids. To quote the amusing report of Vigerius: "I have cured a Horse stone blind with Honey and Salt and a little crock of a pot mixed. In less than three daies, it bath eaten off a tough filme, and the Horse never complained after." In the July, 1937 issue of the American Bee Journal (page 350) "A Subscriber" from New York State writes as follows: "I had a horse going blind with a white film over his eye which seemed to hurt. His eye was shut and watered. I dipped white honey into his eye with a feather for several nights. In a day or so the film was gone and the eye looked bright and good."
The Chinese and Hindus cover the entire bodies of their small-pox patients with honey to hasten the termination of the disease and also to prevent the formation of scars. Galen thought that "Hony warmes and cleares Wounds and Ulcers, attenuates and discusseth excrescencies in any part of the body." The Talmud recommended honey for ulcerated wounds, especially for extensive sores of animals. Ceromel, made with one part of wax and four parts of honey, is popular in the tropics for ulcers because it never becomes rancid.
During the Middle Ages honey was extensively used in the form of ointments and plasters for boils, wounds, burns and ulcers, plain or mixed with other ingredients. Charles Butler thought that honey "will knit together hollow and crooked ulcers and likewise close other disjoyned flesh." He highly praised the Unguentum Aegyptiacum which was made by boiling honey, vinegar and wintergreen. This plaster, according to Butler, would "open, clean, dry and digest all inflammations and resist putrefaction." Rectal suppositories contained honey and wax. Galen's honey and oil enema was popular for centuries.
Richard Remnant (The History of Bees, London, 1637) had implicit faith in "admirable baths made of honey which are excel-lent for Aches and strong Itches." A friend of his had "a foul itch that he was like a Leper." He cured him in the following manner: He used an empty Wine cask, called a Pipe, and "took out one head" and made a liquor of water and honey, making it pretty strong with honey and "heated it as hot as he could endure to stand in it," and poured it into the Pipe and "caused him to stand in it up to his neck a pretty while." This he did "three days, one after another, and he recovered as clear as ever." He had a like experience with "divers Aches." "If it be renewed every day with a little honey, it will be better."
The rural populations of the European continent, especially that of the Slavic countries, used honey for all kinds of wounds and inflammations. "Honey ointment", consisting of equal portions of honey and white flour, well mixed with a little water, had a wide usage. A good ointment should be more solidified than too liquid. Honey and burnt alum was another popular combination. In croupous diphtheria it was the accepted method of mothers to grip with their fingers a chunk of honey and vigorously rub, as far as they could reach, the throat and air passages of the patients. A honey poultice was also applied around the neck. Several drops of warm honey in the ear was considered an excellent remedy for pain, inflammation and ringing of the ear. Galen remarked: "Hony infused warme by itself wonderfully helps exulcerated ears, especially if they cast forth ill flavours, as also their singings and inflammations." Marcellus Empyricus suggested: "Honey, Butter and Oyle of Roses, of each a like quantity, warme, helps the paine of the ears, dulness of the sight and the white spots in the eyes."
The writer learned through personal communication that honey is still used for trachoma in the form of eyedrops. A Canadian mother related to him that two of her daughters contracted sore eyes while attending school, where there was an epidemic at the time. They were cured in two or three days by dropping honey into their eyes. It took two and three weeks for the other children in the school to get rid of the same trouble. Cataracts of the eyes were reported to have been cured by the same method, drop-ping honey into the eyes three times daily.
Our good friend, the famous globe-trotter Dr. W. E. Aughinbaugh, described an operation he witnessed in Panama, during the construction of the canal. A native Indian surgeon of considerable repute performed a disarticulation of the hip joint. He smoked cigarettes incessantly during the operation, laid them down occasionally, picking them up again with his bloody fingers. After the stump was sutured, the surgeon took from a large pail several handfuls of honey, which he smeared over the wound, covering it subsequently with gauze. He assured Dr. Aughinbaugh that he had never had an infection when he applied a layer of honey over the wound. Dr. Aughinbaugh has seen the natives of the Amazon region "suture" extensive injuries by letting beetles unite the margins of wounds with their robust mandibles. After the heads of the insects were severed, the mandibles remained closed and the wounds were covered with honey mixed with liquid wax. The results were excellent.
It is singular that, though honey was used for thousands of years for treatment of wounds and skin troubles, our modern medical literature ignores the subject. Lately, it seems, honey is gradually regaining its age-old repute and lost popularity. Dr. Zaiss, of Heidelberg, considers honey in the treatment of wounds superior to all other ointments. He has treated several thousand cases of severe infections with honey and could not report a single failure. Dr. Zaiss prefers honey even to tincture of iodine. He dresses the wounds with strips of gauze dipped in honey, and finds the wounds perfectly clean in 24 hours. The sloughs, even deep ones, usually adhere to the dressing material. Dr. Zaiss states that the application causes, at first, a transient smarting but the pain is soon relieved and a cooling sensation supervenes. The healing is remarkably rapid. He suggests a daily change of dressing.
The Germans were always firm believers in the curative power of honey, both internally and externally, as a surgical dressing. It is interesting that honey is now combined in Germany with an-other old popular remedy; namely, cod-liver oil. Pliny highly praised cod-liver oil as a wound dressing (Hist. Nat. 31:27). The Eskimos, Laplanders and the natives of Greenland use cod-liver oil even these days for the dressing of wounds. German surgeons, Zaiss, Sack, Lucke, Buchheister, Löhr, Gundel, Blattner and others, published recently in the medical journals miraculotis results which they obtained through the use of a cod-liver oil ointment called Desitin-Honey salve. Infected wounds, ulcerations, burns, fistulas, boils, carbuncles, felons, etc., are reported to heal in the shortest time. The ointment is supposed to check inflammation, stimulate granulation and remove deep necrotic tissues. Subjectively the ointment is very well tolerated because it alleviates pain and eases tension. The change of dressings is not painful because in twenty-four hours the wound is soaked in a rich exudate of lymph which prevents adherence of the dressing material to the wound and is easily removed. The odor of the ointment is rather pleasant, without a corrigent. It is difficult to say whether the honey or the cod-liver oil is the more helpful ingredient but it seems that it is a fortunate combination. The surgeons advise that, though its function is not scientifically proven and therefore justified, these facts should not interfere with its use. In skin diseases, even in psoriasis, the results obtained were excellent. For frostbites on ears, fingers and toes there is nothing which will take out sooner the frost and swelling than when these parts are wrapped in honey. Verrucae (warts) were reported to have been removed by the overnight application of a honey poultice.
Recently Dr. Charles Brunnich, a surgeon of Switzerland, joined the ranks of those who advocate honey for surgical dressings, especially for contused and badly slashed septic wounds. He quotes the case of a man whose finger was smashed in a grinding machine. The bone of the terminal phalanx of the finger was broken and hung on a skin flap. After wrapping the extremity in honey the finger grew on and rapidly healed. Another man had, in succession, two large carbuncles on the back. While the first carbuncle was operated on by a surgeon and left a deep ugly scar, the second was treated only with honey. The cores rapidly eliminated and the wound left only an insignificant scar.
In the "Alpenlindische Bienenzeitung" (February, 1935) we find the following report from a man: "In the winter of 1933 I heated a boiler of about thirty-five gallons of water. When I opened the cover, it flew with great force against the ceiling. The vapor and hot water poured forth over my unprotected head, over my hands and feet. Some minutes afterward I had violent pains and I believe I would have gone mad if my wife and my daughter had not helped me immediately. They took large pieces of linen, daubed them thickly with honey and put them on my head, neck, hands and feet. Almost instantly the pain ceased. I slept well all night and did not lose a single hair on my head. When the physician came he shook his head and said: `How can such a thing be possible?
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Heather Honey
Heather Honey
Magic healing power was attributed to heather, this modest little wild flower of the Scottish Highlands, so dear to the heart of all Scotsmen. The legendary lore and lay connected with this favorite mountain bloom, the emblem of solitude, was shared by the honey which the bees extracted from it. Heather designates a flower of the heath (in German, heide) and its connection with the word heathen, pagan (in German, heide also means pagan) reflects a quaint superstition. Both in Scotland and in Germany a belief existed that the heather grew from the blood of a heathen. In Scotland, on Halloween, the witches are supposed to ride on heather brooms.
The heather flower is purplish, suggesting the color of blood. White heather is extremely rare and it is supposed to bring good luck, not unlike a four-leaf clover. Queen Victoria mentioned in a letter that when she was a young bride and was driving fast to Balmoral Castle, her coachman suddenly jumped off the carriage to pick a white heather for which "he had an extraordinary eye to find," and remarked that "a Highlander would never pass one without picking it, because it is considered to bring one good fortune."
The nectar which heather blooms contain is rich in minerals. The Picts had the secret of making excellent ale from the "tender tops of the twigs." Heather ale was called heather-crop, meaning the top of the plant. Robert Louis Stevenson refers to heather ale in A Galloway Legend:
From the bonny bells of heather They brewed a drink lang-syne, Was sweeter far than honey, Was stronger far than wine. They brewed it and they drank it, And lay in blessed swound For days and days together In their dwellings underground.
Leyden also refers to it in The Heather:
For once thy mantling juice was seen to laugh In pearly cups, which monarchs loved to quaff ;
Heather ale was much used among the Picts; but when that nation was extirpated by the Scots the secret of making it perished with them.
We know the legend relating how anxious were the Scots to learn the secret of the strength-giving heather ale. When the last two living members of the Picts, father and son, were brought before Kenneth the Conqueror, he offered them their life on condition that they reveal the method of heath-liquor making. After they refused Kenneth ordered the son to be killed. The father was still obdurate but his life was spared and he was imprisoned. He lived much beyond the limits of mortal existence but became blind and bed-ridden. Once he overheard some young men boasting of their strength. He felt their wrists, re-marking that they were not feeble but their vigor could not be compared to men who drank heather ale. He asked for an iron bar and broke it with his hands. It was an old Scotch saying that mead-drinkers have as much strength as meat-eaters.
The medicinal properties of heather had a wide repute in antiquity. Parkinson in his Theatrum Botanicum, 1640 A.D., remarks: "It hath a digesting quality, resolving the malignity of humors, by transpiration or sweating; which a decoction of the flowers being drunke, doth perform, and thereby giveth much ease to the paines within the body, and expelleth the worms therein also; the leaves and flowers made into a decoction is good against the stings or bitings of serpents and other venomous creatures; and the same being drunke warm, for thirty days together, morning and evening, doth absolutely breake the stone and drive it forth; the same, also, or the destilled water of the whole plant, being drunke easeth the chollicke; the said water or the juyce of the herbe dropped into the eyes helpeth the weaknesse of the sight."
A decoction of heather "with faire water to be drunken warm both morning and evening in the quantity of five ounces three hours before meat, against the stone in the bladder; but at last the patient must enter into a bath made of the decoction and whiles he is in the said bath, he must sit upon some of the heather that made the foresaid bath. By the use of bath, dyet and decoction hee has knowne many to be holpen, so that the stone has come from them in very small pieces." Dioscorides' highly-praised Erica plant was undoubtedly heather.
The same curative power which was imputed to the plant was also attributed to heather honey. Rev. Hugh Macmillan re-marked that "Mount Hybla itself could not boast of more luscious honey than the liquid amber which the bees gathered from the heather-bells." The Scotch thought that heather honey had a "grousey" taste.
Heather honey has world-wide repute as a specific remedy for many ailments. It is in great demand in foreign countries and is sold at a premium. Dr. Barton, during his stay 'in Edinburgh, noticed the distinct soporific effect of heath-honey. It is often so thick that it can not be readily separated from the combs by centrifugal force unless kept in a warm place for several days before extracting.
Pure heather (ling) honey does not granulate unless 10 per cent of pollen grains of other plants are present. (But 5 per cent of charlock might start granulation.) It is of a jelly consistency with a multitude of tiny air bubbles which give a characteristic sparkle. If the honey is heated these bubbles rise to the surface and their absence at once reduces the merit of the honey. In common parlance, pure heather honey does not imply absolute purity. If there is 20 per cent of other pollen present, it would still be reckoned good heather honey; and even if it had up-wards of 40 per cent of foreign pollen grains, that honey might, by flavor, aroma and consistency, pass anywhere as good heather honey. Bell heather (Erica) does granulate, and it is to be classed with other dark honeys; for it has not the characteristic color, sparkle, consistency, astringency, flavor, and pollen of the genuine heather honey (John Beveridge, President of the Scottish Beekeepers' Association).
Magic healing power was attributed to heather, this modest little wild flower of the Scottish Highlands, so dear to the heart of all Scotsmen. The legendary lore and lay connected with this favorite mountain bloom, the emblem of solitude, was shared by the honey which the bees extracted from it. Heather designates a flower of the heath (in German, heide) and its connection with the word heathen, pagan (in German, heide also means pagan) reflects a quaint superstition. Both in Scotland and in Germany a belief existed that the heather grew from the blood of a heathen. In Scotland, on Halloween, the witches are supposed to ride on heather brooms.
The heather flower is purplish, suggesting the color of blood. White heather is extremely rare and it is supposed to bring good luck, not unlike a four-leaf clover. Queen Victoria mentioned in a letter that when she was a young bride and was driving fast to Balmoral Castle, her coachman suddenly jumped off the carriage to pick a white heather for which "he had an extraordinary eye to find," and remarked that "a Highlander would never pass one without picking it, because it is considered to bring one good fortune."
The nectar which heather blooms contain is rich in minerals. The Picts had the secret of making excellent ale from the "tender tops of the twigs." Heather ale was called heather-crop, meaning the top of the plant. Robert Louis Stevenson refers to heather ale in A Galloway Legend:
From the bonny bells of heather They brewed a drink lang-syne, Was sweeter far than honey, Was stronger far than wine. They brewed it and they drank it, And lay in blessed swound For days and days together In their dwellings underground.
Leyden also refers to it in The Heather:
For once thy mantling juice was seen to laugh In pearly cups, which monarchs loved to quaff ;
Heather ale was much used among the Picts; but when that nation was extirpated by the Scots the secret of making it perished with them.
We know the legend relating how anxious were the Scots to learn the secret of the strength-giving heather ale. When the last two living members of the Picts, father and son, were brought before Kenneth the Conqueror, he offered them their life on condition that they reveal the method of heath-liquor making. After they refused Kenneth ordered the son to be killed. The father was still obdurate but his life was spared and he was imprisoned. He lived much beyond the limits of mortal existence but became blind and bed-ridden. Once he overheard some young men boasting of their strength. He felt their wrists, re-marking that they were not feeble but their vigor could not be compared to men who drank heather ale. He asked for an iron bar and broke it with his hands. It was an old Scotch saying that mead-drinkers have as much strength as meat-eaters.
The medicinal properties of heather had a wide repute in antiquity. Parkinson in his Theatrum Botanicum, 1640 A.D., remarks: "It hath a digesting quality, resolving the malignity of humors, by transpiration or sweating; which a decoction of the flowers being drunke, doth perform, and thereby giveth much ease to the paines within the body, and expelleth the worms therein also; the leaves and flowers made into a decoction is good against the stings or bitings of serpents and other venomous creatures; and the same being drunke warm, for thirty days together, morning and evening, doth absolutely breake the stone and drive it forth; the same, also, or the destilled water of the whole plant, being drunke easeth the chollicke; the said water or the juyce of the herbe dropped into the eyes helpeth the weaknesse of the sight."
A decoction of heather "with faire water to be drunken warm both morning and evening in the quantity of five ounces three hours before meat, against the stone in the bladder; but at last the patient must enter into a bath made of the decoction and whiles he is in the said bath, he must sit upon some of the heather that made the foresaid bath. By the use of bath, dyet and decoction hee has knowne many to be holpen, so that the stone has come from them in very small pieces." Dioscorides' highly-praised Erica plant was undoubtedly heather.
The same curative power which was imputed to the plant was also attributed to heather honey. Rev. Hugh Macmillan re-marked that "Mount Hybla itself could not boast of more luscious honey than the liquid amber which the bees gathered from the heather-bells." The Scotch thought that heather honey had a "grousey" taste.
Heather honey has world-wide repute as a specific remedy for many ailments. It is in great demand in foreign countries and is sold at a premium. Dr. Barton, during his stay 'in Edinburgh, noticed the distinct soporific effect of heath-honey. It is often so thick that it can not be readily separated from the combs by centrifugal force unless kept in a warm place for several days before extracting.
Pure heather (ling) honey does not granulate unless 10 per cent of pollen grains of other plants are present. (But 5 per cent of charlock might start granulation.) It is of a jelly consistency with a multitude of tiny air bubbles which give a characteristic sparkle. If the honey is heated these bubbles rise to the surface and their absence at once reduces the merit of the honey. In common parlance, pure heather honey does not imply absolute purity. If there is 20 per cent of other pollen present, it would still be reckoned good heather honey; and even if it had up-wards of 40 per cent of foreign pollen grains, that honey might, by flavor, aroma and consistency, pass anywhere as good heather honey. Bell heather (Erica) does granulate, and it is to be classed with other dark honeys; for it has not the characteristic color, sparkle, consistency, astringency, flavor, and pollen of the genuine heather honey (John Beveridge, President of the Scottish Beekeepers' Association).
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Honey And Diabetes
Honey And Diabetes
Diabetes is a fundamental disorder of metabolism, primarily that of carbohydrates. It is due to a deficiency of the pancreas, a gland connected with the alimentary canal which, under the circumstances, does not produce sufficient insulin. It is a weakness or exhaustion of the gland. In diabetes the ingested carbohydrates, sugars and starches cannot be utilized, but are eliminated in the urine. Part of the food turns into sugar and the glutton has to return to Nature his illegitimate gains. The victim must famish in the midst of plenty. It is really a revenge of Nature. Lean people rarely acquire diabetes. In obese subjects the excess sugar and starch which they consume does not sufficiently oxidize, but forms fat which is already a disintegration of the organism.
A word should be said regarding the cause of diabetes. Most medical textbooks carefully avoid even mentioning the subject. Others acknowledge that the cause of diabetes is unknown. The author's personal comprehension is that the abuse of artificial sugar and salt are mainly to be blamed for it by producing an inflammation or sclerosis of the pancreas. The influence of white sugar already has been discussed. With regard to salt, he would set forth that animal diabetes is confined to horses, cattle and dogs. Salt is given to horses (occasionally also sugar) and to cattle, mixed in their fodder, and dogs obtain it in our waste food.
R. Arima of Tokyo, Japan, Director of the Arima Institute, experimented on himself. He had never had any diabetic ailment. In 1934, at the age of fifty-three he purposely consumed an excess of salt with the result that he suffered from excessive urine secretion, followed by diabetes. He repeated the experiment twice with the same result. He thought that diabetes could be easily cured by the limited use of, or total abstinence from salt. Arima quotes a noted authority who made the statement that civilized man is "pickled" in salt. In his opinion even hardening of the arteries and premature senility is caused by salt. A friend of the late John D. Rockefeller related to this author that during a dinner the old gentleman warned him never to use salt because the substance is injurious to health. As Mr. Rockefeller almost reached the class of centenarians his admonition is worthy of consideration.
Vegetarians and herbivorous animals crave salt because they require it. Fruits, vegetables and plants, in general, contain ample other minerals but are insufficient in sodium chloride. Meat eaters can get along without salt. Many teachers of nutrition are against the use of salt. They claim that an excess of it will produce rigidity and inactivity. The brain, heart, arteries, muscles, salivary glands, eyes and sex organs lose their elasticity, become indurated and finally ossified. Lime, which commercial sugars contain, has a similar effect. When the biological chemists will use more commonsense than microscopes they will also establish the fact that refined sugars contribute more to the prevalence of arthritis than has so far been surmised.
It is much beyond the scope of this review to enumerate the ill effects of diabetes. One of the cardinal troubles is lack of glycogen (animal starch) which is normally deposited in the muscles, of course, the heart, the blood and mainly in the liver (the savings bank of glucose), where it is stored and later utilized as the most important energy-producing substance of the organ-ism. Normal blood contains about 0.10% glucose.
If a diabetic organism is unable to oxidize glucose, it will have vital effect also on other processes of metabolism, mainly on the metabolism of fat. The burning of carbohydrates, especially glucose, is indispensable for the burning of fat. Fats burn in the flame of carbohydrates. Imperfect oxidation of fats produces the formation of unoxidized fatty acids, commonly called acetone bodies, which will disturb the acid-base equilibrium of the system and finally will deplete the entire alkali reserve of the body.
The importance of sugar metabolism on the spinal column and brain is evident. The blood of the veins which leaves the brain contains less sugar and more acids than the blood of the arteries which centers upon it. Sugar assimilation has an important function in the chemical activities of brain cells. The successful therapeutic application of insulin in various mental disorders clearly demonstrates this. The lack of sugar assimilation of a diabetic, the accompanying depression, comatose states, even fatal ending, prove the vital importance of sugar metabolism on the activities of the brain cells.
The administration of insulin, a pancreatic hormon, corrects the pathological condition in diabetes and converts the carbohydrates into glycogen, which a diabetic constitution is unable to perform. Insulin is an adjunct in the treatment of diabetes but by no means a cure. The use of insulin is a burdensome procedure. The patient must inject insulin about half an hour before each meal to effectuate this function. Its dosage must first be deter-mined because the units of insulin must correspond with the subsequent meal, with the patient's sugar tolerance, etc. The patient's individual response and also the amount of carbohydrates must be rigorously controlled and frequently modified. It is a tedious performance involving considerable time and expense, besides anxiety, and a careful application of complex chemistry and mathematics.
Any substance which could be utilized in mild diabetic cases to convert carbohydrates, by oral administration, into glycogen would be invaluable and far exceed in usefulness the dominant but otherwise beneficial insulin. The relinquishment of the cumbersome self-administered hypodermic injections alone would be of inestimable service.
Whether diabetics could utilize honey by converting it into glycogen to supply a much-needed source of energy for their depleted systems is an issue worth a thorough and unbiased investigation. There are many indications that there is more than a possibility of using honey for these sufferers.
Honey and refined sugars greatly differ not only in chemical characteristics but also in physiological effects. The circumstance alone that honey contains invert sugars and saves the debilitated alimentary organs the additional labor of inverting commercial sugars, is an important factor and of considerable advantage.
In relationship to diabetes there are also other distinctly heterogenous features in sugar and honey. If insulin were administered to a diabetic patient before a meal and the insulin units were in excess of the consequently consumed carbohydrates, or there was no food given at all, a severe, often disastrous insulin-shock would supervene. The reason for this occurrence is that the insulin will digest and consume the already scanty sugar reserve of the organism and an undersupply of blood-sugar (subglycemia) is just as dangerous as an oversupply (hyperglycemia). The only way to correct such a contingency is to administer a sufficient amount of glucose to compensate the action of excess insulin.
Cases have been reported where a liberal amount of honey was administered to avert an insulin shock due to subglycemia, but it was of no benefit; on the other hand, a subsequent administration of glucose rapidly neutralized the harmful effects of insulin. The slow absorption of levulose and the delay of trans-forming it in the system into glucose would account for the inefficiency. This plainly proves that a fundamental chemical and physiological contrast exists between ordinary sugar and honey. There is much the same disparity between glucose and levulose, the latter an important component of honey. The symptoms of subglycemia which follow the complete removal of the liver in animals are promptly dispelled by the administration of glucose, while levulose is ineffective. It is noteworthy that levulose is rarely, if ever, found in the blood.
Diabetic patients who have had to endure for endless years the self-inflicted injections of insulin are often exposed to insulin-shock, which is really subglycemic reaction. Sometimes it is impossible to give an adequate reason for this dangerous and occasionally fatal occurrence. There are many causes which may produce such a state and diabetics ought to be well instructed in their appreciation. This is a difficult task for a layman, often enough even for an intelligent physician. The most common causes which are responsible for such a state are, as a rule, errors in administering the proper amount of insulin, usually too large a dose; a delay in eating an appropriate meal; that is, a poor adjustment of diet or loss of part of the food by vomiting, diarrhea or gastric obstruction; violent exercise in combination with insulin, etc. Diabetics often use the same site for injections. This delays or prevents absorption and requires an increase of insulin, which additional dose, if injected into a new site, will absorb rapidly, lower the blood-sugar level and produce a shock.
Many instances have been reported where honey was well tolerated by diabetics and supplied them with required energy. In 1933, after the author had published a questionnaire to bee-keepers through the courtesy of apicultural journals, to obtain information about the effects of bee stings, especially about their remedial value in rheumatic and arthritic conditions, many correspondents volunteered illuminating reports about the medicinal value of honey. Some of these communications state that honey has been used by them in hopeless diabetic conditions with the best success and resulted in cures. Some reports are very instructive. Mr. G. J., of Kaukauna, Wisconsin, writes, "I am a railroad engineer by trade, but I became a diabetes victim and I had to re-sign my job because I fell away to nothing. The doctors gave me up and proclaimed that there was no hope for me. Then I made up my mind to take up a diet that I asked for but the doctors refused and here it is:
"Began this diet in 1922 and at the end of 1923 the doctors could not find a trace of sugar, though several of them have tested me to satisfy their curiosity. I am now past 65, eat any-thing on the table, and will do as much work as any man of my age, if not more, after going through two railroad wrecks and being picked up twice for dead. Whisky was not the cause of the wrecks, for I do not touch the cursed stuff."
Mr. L. M. D. of Edmeston, New York, writes that he not only cured many cases of rheumatism with bee stings but also supplies a list of people who were victims of diabetes. After they indulged in honey they recovered. "Mr. and Mrs. F. D. both suffered from diabetes, doctoring with various physicians for a long time without improving. Finally they went on a diet consisting of large amounts of honey and plenty of fruit, and today both are alright."
Such disclosures (call them intrusions), even though they originate from the laity, ought to arouse the attention of the venerable medical fraternity.
To justify the supposition that honey can be given to diabetics, there are also statements from members of the medical profession. Dr. F. C. Ameiss advocated tupelo honey for diabetics, as having a minimum percentage of dextrose and a maximum of levulose. (Tupelo is a tree of the dogwood family.) Dr. Desiderius de Beszedits, of Coyuca de Catalan, Guerrero, Mexico, in an article in the Medical World, October, 1934, "Treat-ment of Diabetes," wrote the following: "Just one more thing to conclude: the employing of honey-diet in the treatment of diabetes may look antiscientific, antimedical, even rather silly to the theoretical minded, uninitiated or to a superficial observer. Just at this writing, my bee flocks (a cross between the lazy native Indian wasp-like bee and the large, ever-busy Hungarian—also called Italian—bee, I imported from Europe) are busy gathering honey from a plant now in bloom here, called retama or tecoma mollis, retania or tronadora. We make tincture and fluid extract of this plant (leaves and roots), and I give it to diabetic patients in drop doses in manzanilla tea when I cannot obtain the leaves for the tea that I use in preference. The tea, the tincture and the fluid extract of this plant have a decidedly and markedly antiglycosuric and eupeptic quality and its antipolyuric effect is notably rapid. Now we all know that the bee sucks the quintessence of the flower juice, adds something of her own to it (saliva or some other substance) and so manufactures it into honey. Each country has a large number of provenly medicinal plants, and the bees gather their honey from such flowers. Making our deductions, it is not difficult to understand why, on this basis, honey fits into the curative diet for diabetes. Most likely it is just the proper food for the depleted hungry glands." (The belief that the curative properties of certain plants are transmitted by the bees from the blooms into the honey they produce, is rather wide-spread. Menelik, the great King of the Ethiopians, according to Dr. Theodorows (Lancet, 1897) grew Coso trees under which he placed the hives. The Coso honey which the bees gathered from the blooms was considered an excellent worm remedy. A tablespoonful of the honey in water was supposed to be sufficient to produce results. The natives of India drop lotus honey into the eyes to cure cataracts. The belief in the anti-tuberculotic effect of Eucalyptus honey is world-wide.)
Dr. A. Y. Davidov of Russia has found honey a good substitute for sugar and other sweet foodstuffs in diabetes. Dr. Davidov believes that honey prevents acetonemia and diminishes the amount of sugar in the urine in spite of the fact that honey contains 75% sugar. One of his patients used one pound of honey in ten days without an increase of the sugar rate in the urine. When the use of honey was stopped for a while the sugar percentage in the urine rose and the patient was again given four teaspoonfuls of honey daily, after which the sugar rate again dropped. Dr. Davidov reported six more instances where honey had a beneficial effect in diabetes.
Dr. L. R. Emerick of Eaton, Ohio, a specialist in diabetes, used honey in the diet of more than 250 diabetic patients with success. The fame of the late Dr. R. J. Goss of Middlebury, Vermont, was proclaimed throughout the State for helping diabetics on a honey diet. A neighbor of his related that he has seen many patients arrive for treatments weak and emaciated but they soon gained in weight, looked splendid and were able to walk for miles.
(The author would earnestly caution diabetics not to use honey without the advice and strict control of their physicians.)
Professor A. Szent-Györgyi, the discoverer of Vitamin C, published interesting results which he obtained by peroral administration of succinic acid in the treatment of acidosis of diabetics (Orvosi Hetilap. Budapest, No. 24, June 12, 1937). These, if confirmed, may explain the beneficial effects of various acids, among others lactic, succinic, citric, malic acid, etc., which honey contains. The formation of dangerous acetone in diabetes is possibly corrected through the aid of these acids.
Diabetes is a fundamental disorder of metabolism, primarily that of carbohydrates. It is due to a deficiency of the pancreas, a gland connected with the alimentary canal which, under the circumstances, does not produce sufficient insulin. It is a weakness or exhaustion of the gland. In diabetes the ingested carbohydrates, sugars and starches cannot be utilized, but are eliminated in the urine. Part of the food turns into sugar and the glutton has to return to Nature his illegitimate gains. The victim must famish in the midst of plenty. It is really a revenge of Nature. Lean people rarely acquire diabetes. In obese subjects the excess sugar and starch which they consume does not sufficiently oxidize, but forms fat which is already a disintegration of the organism.
A word should be said regarding the cause of diabetes. Most medical textbooks carefully avoid even mentioning the subject. Others acknowledge that the cause of diabetes is unknown. The author's personal comprehension is that the abuse of artificial sugar and salt are mainly to be blamed for it by producing an inflammation or sclerosis of the pancreas. The influence of white sugar already has been discussed. With regard to salt, he would set forth that animal diabetes is confined to horses, cattle and dogs. Salt is given to horses (occasionally also sugar) and to cattle, mixed in their fodder, and dogs obtain it in our waste food.
R. Arima of Tokyo, Japan, Director of the Arima Institute, experimented on himself. He had never had any diabetic ailment. In 1934, at the age of fifty-three he purposely consumed an excess of salt with the result that he suffered from excessive urine secretion, followed by diabetes. He repeated the experiment twice with the same result. He thought that diabetes could be easily cured by the limited use of, or total abstinence from salt. Arima quotes a noted authority who made the statement that civilized man is "pickled" in salt. In his opinion even hardening of the arteries and premature senility is caused by salt. A friend of the late John D. Rockefeller related to this author that during a dinner the old gentleman warned him never to use salt because the substance is injurious to health. As Mr. Rockefeller almost reached the class of centenarians his admonition is worthy of consideration.
Vegetarians and herbivorous animals crave salt because they require it. Fruits, vegetables and plants, in general, contain ample other minerals but are insufficient in sodium chloride. Meat eaters can get along without salt. Many teachers of nutrition are against the use of salt. They claim that an excess of it will produce rigidity and inactivity. The brain, heart, arteries, muscles, salivary glands, eyes and sex organs lose their elasticity, become indurated and finally ossified. Lime, which commercial sugars contain, has a similar effect. When the biological chemists will use more commonsense than microscopes they will also establish the fact that refined sugars contribute more to the prevalence of arthritis than has so far been surmised.
It is much beyond the scope of this review to enumerate the ill effects of diabetes. One of the cardinal troubles is lack of glycogen (animal starch) which is normally deposited in the muscles, of course, the heart, the blood and mainly in the liver (the savings bank of glucose), where it is stored and later utilized as the most important energy-producing substance of the organ-ism. Normal blood contains about 0.10% glucose.
If a diabetic organism is unable to oxidize glucose, it will have vital effect also on other processes of metabolism, mainly on the metabolism of fat. The burning of carbohydrates, especially glucose, is indispensable for the burning of fat. Fats burn in the flame of carbohydrates. Imperfect oxidation of fats produces the formation of unoxidized fatty acids, commonly called acetone bodies, which will disturb the acid-base equilibrium of the system and finally will deplete the entire alkali reserve of the body.
The importance of sugar metabolism on the spinal column and brain is evident. The blood of the veins which leaves the brain contains less sugar and more acids than the blood of the arteries which centers upon it. Sugar assimilation has an important function in the chemical activities of brain cells. The successful therapeutic application of insulin in various mental disorders clearly demonstrates this. The lack of sugar assimilation of a diabetic, the accompanying depression, comatose states, even fatal ending, prove the vital importance of sugar metabolism on the activities of the brain cells.
The administration of insulin, a pancreatic hormon, corrects the pathological condition in diabetes and converts the carbohydrates into glycogen, which a diabetic constitution is unable to perform. Insulin is an adjunct in the treatment of diabetes but by no means a cure. The use of insulin is a burdensome procedure. The patient must inject insulin about half an hour before each meal to effectuate this function. Its dosage must first be deter-mined because the units of insulin must correspond with the subsequent meal, with the patient's sugar tolerance, etc. The patient's individual response and also the amount of carbohydrates must be rigorously controlled and frequently modified. It is a tedious performance involving considerable time and expense, besides anxiety, and a careful application of complex chemistry and mathematics.
Any substance which could be utilized in mild diabetic cases to convert carbohydrates, by oral administration, into glycogen would be invaluable and far exceed in usefulness the dominant but otherwise beneficial insulin. The relinquishment of the cumbersome self-administered hypodermic injections alone would be of inestimable service.
Whether diabetics could utilize honey by converting it into glycogen to supply a much-needed source of energy for their depleted systems is an issue worth a thorough and unbiased investigation. There are many indications that there is more than a possibility of using honey for these sufferers.
Honey and refined sugars greatly differ not only in chemical characteristics but also in physiological effects. The circumstance alone that honey contains invert sugars and saves the debilitated alimentary organs the additional labor of inverting commercial sugars, is an important factor and of considerable advantage.
In relationship to diabetes there are also other distinctly heterogenous features in sugar and honey. If insulin were administered to a diabetic patient before a meal and the insulin units were in excess of the consequently consumed carbohydrates, or there was no food given at all, a severe, often disastrous insulin-shock would supervene. The reason for this occurrence is that the insulin will digest and consume the already scanty sugar reserve of the organism and an undersupply of blood-sugar (subglycemia) is just as dangerous as an oversupply (hyperglycemia). The only way to correct such a contingency is to administer a sufficient amount of glucose to compensate the action of excess insulin.
Cases have been reported where a liberal amount of honey was administered to avert an insulin shock due to subglycemia, but it was of no benefit; on the other hand, a subsequent administration of glucose rapidly neutralized the harmful effects of insulin. The slow absorption of levulose and the delay of trans-forming it in the system into glucose would account for the inefficiency. This plainly proves that a fundamental chemical and physiological contrast exists between ordinary sugar and honey. There is much the same disparity between glucose and levulose, the latter an important component of honey. The symptoms of subglycemia which follow the complete removal of the liver in animals are promptly dispelled by the administration of glucose, while levulose is ineffective. It is noteworthy that levulose is rarely, if ever, found in the blood.
Diabetic patients who have had to endure for endless years the self-inflicted injections of insulin are often exposed to insulin-shock, which is really subglycemic reaction. Sometimes it is impossible to give an adequate reason for this dangerous and occasionally fatal occurrence. There are many causes which may produce such a state and diabetics ought to be well instructed in their appreciation. This is a difficult task for a layman, often enough even for an intelligent physician. The most common causes which are responsible for such a state are, as a rule, errors in administering the proper amount of insulin, usually too large a dose; a delay in eating an appropriate meal; that is, a poor adjustment of diet or loss of part of the food by vomiting, diarrhea or gastric obstruction; violent exercise in combination with insulin, etc. Diabetics often use the same site for injections. This delays or prevents absorption and requires an increase of insulin, which additional dose, if injected into a new site, will absorb rapidly, lower the blood-sugar level and produce a shock.
Many instances have been reported where honey was well tolerated by diabetics and supplied them with required energy. In 1933, after the author had published a questionnaire to bee-keepers through the courtesy of apicultural journals, to obtain information about the effects of bee stings, especially about their remedial value in rheumatic and arthritic conditions, many correspondents volunteered illuminating reports about the medicinal value of honey. Some of these communications state that honey has been used by them in hopeless diabetic conditions with the best success and resulted in cures. Some reports are very instructive. Mr. G. J., of Kaukauna, Wisconsin, writes, "I am a railroad engineer by trade, but I became a diabetes victim and I had to re-sign my job because I fell away to nothing. The doctors gave me up and proclaimed that there was no hope for me. Then I made up my mind to take up a diet that I asked for but the doctors refused and here it is:
- Spinach, raw or cooked, mostly raw.
- Lettuce, sweetened with honey and lime juice.
- Raw carrots, washed, brushed and grated, sweetened with honey to taste.
- Raw cabbage salad with lime juice and honey.
- Ripe tomatoes, raw or canned, sweetened with honey. Whole wheat bread.
"Began this diet in 1922 and at the end of 1923 the doctors could not find a trace of sugar, though several of them have tested me to satisfy their curiosity. I am now past 65, eat any-thing on the table, and will do as much work as any man of my age, if not more, after going through two railroad wrecks and being picked up twice for dead. Whisky was not the cause of the wrecks, for I do not touch the cursed stuff."
Mr. L. M. D. of Edmeston, New York, writes that he not only cured many cases of rheumatism with bee stings but also supplies a list of people who were victims of diabetes. After they indulged in honey they recovered. "Mr. and Mrs. F. D. both suffered from diabetes, doctoring with various physicians for a long time without improving. Finally they went on a diet consisting of large amounts of honey and plenty of fruit, and today both are alright."
Such disclosures (call them intrusions), even though they originate from the laity, ought to arouse the attention of the venerable medical fraternity.
To justify the supposition that honey can be given to diabetics, there are also statements from members of the medical profession. Dr. F. C. Ameiss advocated tupelo honey for diabetics, as having a minimum percentage of dextrose and a maximum of levulose. (Tupelo is a tree of the dogwood family.) Dr. Desiderius de Beszedits, of Coyuca de Catalan, Guerrero, Mexico, in an article in the Medical World, October, 1934, "Treat-ment of Diabetes," wrote the following: "Just one more thing to conclude: the employing of honey-diet in the treatment of diabetes may look antiscientific, antimedical, even rather silly to the theoretical minded, uninitiated or to a superficial observer. Just at this writing, my bee flocks (a cross between the lazy native Indian wasp-like bee and the large, ever-busy Hungarian—also called Italian—bee, I imported from Europe) are busy gathering honey from a plant now in bloom here, called retama or tecoma mollis, retania or tronadora. We make tincture and fluid extract of this plant (leaves and roots), and I give it to diabetic patients in drop doses in manzanilla tea when I cannot obtain the leaves for the tea that I use in preference. The tea, the tincture and the fluid extract of this plant have a decidedly and markedly antiglycosuric and eupeptic quality and its antipolyuric effect is notably rapid. Now we all know that the bee sucks the quintessence of the flower juice, adds something of her own to it (saliva or some other substance) and so manufactures it into honey. Each country has a large number of provenly medicinal plants, and the bees gather their honey from such flowers. Making our deductions, it is not difficult to understand why, on this basis, honey fits into the curative diet for diabetes. Most likely it is just the proper food for the depleted hungry glands." (The belief that the curative properties of certain plants are transmitted by the bees from the blooms into the honey they produce, is rather wide-spread. Menelik, the great King of the Ethiopians, according to Dr. Theodorows (Lancet, 1897) grew Coso trees under which he placed the hives. The Coso honey which the bees gathered from the blooms was considered an excellent worm remedy. A tablespoonful of the honey in water was supposed to be sufficient to produce results. The natives of India drop lotus honey into the eyes to cure cataracts. The belief in the anti-tuberculotic effect of Eucalyptus honey is world-wide.)
Dr. A. Y. Davidov of Russia has found honey a good substitute for sugar and other sweet foodstuffs in diabetes. Dr. Davidov believes that honey prevents acetonemia and diminishes the amount of sugar in the urine in spite of the fact that honey contains 75% sugar. One of his patients used one pound of honey in ten days without an increase of the sugar rate in the urine. When the use of honey was stopped for a while the sugar percentage in the urine rose and the patient was again given four teaspoonfuls of honey daily, after which the sugar rate again dropped. Dr. Davidov reported six more instances where honey had a beneficial effect in diabetes.
Dr. L. R. Emerick of Eaton, Ohio, a specialist in diabetes, used honey in the diet of more than 250 diabetic patients with success. The fame of the late Dr. R. J. Goss of Middlebury, Vermont, was proclaimed throughout the State for helping diabetics on a honey diet. A neighbor of his related that he has seen many patients arrive for treatments weak and emaciated but they soon gained in weight, looked splendid and were able to walk for miles.
(The author would earnestly caution diabetics not to use honey without the advice and strict control of their physicians.)
Professor A. Szent-Györgyi, the discoverer of Vitamin C, published interesting results which he obtained by peroral administration of succinic acid in the treatment of acidosis of diabetics (Orvosi Hetilap. Budapest, No. 24, June 12, 1937). These, if confirmed, may explain the beneficial effects of various acids, among others lactic, succinic, citric, malic acid, etc., which honey contains. The formation of dangerous acetone in diabetes is possibly corrected through the aid of these acids.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Honey - The Kalevala
Honey - The Kalevala
THERE is no better illustration of the belief in the magic power of honey than in the romantic tales of the Kalevala, the national epic of the Finns. Through the magnetic effect of honey, steel was produced, beer was brewed, the dog created, and with the help of honey's blissful charm wounds were healed and the dead restored to life.
In Finland, the Land of the Thousands of Lakes, we find many delightful fables intimately connected with honey. The Finnish supposedly are a Mongolian race, like the Hungarians, Mordvins and other nations of kindred tongues. Apiculture was far advanced among them. Honey has been in great favor in Finland since time immemorial. The Kalevala, the epic poem of Finland, which is comparable only to the Iliad, Niebelungen, or Roland legends, often alludes to honey.
The Kalevala (the abode of heroes, a bardic designation of Finland) is a charming national epic and one of the most significant poetic works in existence. Its origin and introduction, in addition to its literary value, are extremely instructive from a historical viewpoint. The old sagas, the mythical and allegorical folktales and proverbs which the Kalevala contains, in the form of songs, ballads and incantations, were on the lips of the ancient people of that cold, bleak and desolate country for over a thou-sand years before they were collected by Zacharias Topelius and Elias Lönnrot, both practicing physicians of Helsingfors, and their collaborators, who spent many years of travel in Finland, Lapland and Russia, recording the popular songs and stories of the peasantry and fishermen. They traveled through forests, marshes and ice-plains, on horseback, in sledges drawn by reindeer, in canoes and other primitive conveyances to collect the legends and precious runes from the lips of the minstrels. The epic, filled with the power of magic, is a Herculean prototype of unwritten history. Longfellow must have had great admiration for the beauty of the Kalevala because the Hiawatha is a faithful imitation of it, both in respect to matter as well as to meter.
The enormous influence of the Kalevala on the Finnish population, since it was first published (1835), is best proven by the remarkable transformation, real regeneration of Finland. The disclosure of these romantic tales of wonderful heroism aroused patriotism and resulted in a surprisingly universal civic and moral revival of the nation. Formerly the upper classes of Finland had been absorbed by Sweden and Russia, while the majority of the population, as William Sharp remarked, became "a listless and inert mass."
Today Finland, after long lethargy and constant retrogression, is a new-born progressive country, full of hope, pride and ambition. The fact that Finland is the only country paying its inter-national debts, is the best evidence. Of course, Providence is kind. Finland is a poor (which may be the reason why it pays its debts), barren country, otherwise it would long ago have been swallowed up by enterprising nations. Ethiopia, which is supposed to be one of the richest countries in the world, should envy Finland its indigence.
THERE is no better illustration of the belief in the magic power of honey than in the romantic tales of the Kalevala, the national epic of the Finns. Through the magnetic effect of honey, steel was produced, beer was brewed, the dog created, and with the help of honey's blissful charm wounds were healed and the dead restored to life.
In Finland, the Land of the Thousands of Lakes, we find many delightful fables intimately connected with honey. The Finnish supposedly are a Mongolian race, like the Hungarians, Mordvins and other nations of kindred tongues. Apiculture was far advanced among them. Honey has been in great favor in Finland since time immemorial. The Kalevala, the epic poem of Finland, which is comparable only to the Iliad, Niebelungen, or Roland legends, often alludes to honey.
The Kalevala (the abode of heroes, a bardic designation of Finland) is a charming national epic and one of the most significant poetic works in existence. Its origin and introduction, in addition to its literary value, are extremely instructive from a historical viewpoint. The old sagas, the mythical and allegorical folktales and proverbs which the Kalevala contains, in the form of songs, ballads and incantations, were on the lips of the ancient people of that cold, bleak and desolate country for over a thou-sand years before they were collected by Zacharias Topelius and Elias Lönnrot, both practicing physicians of Helsingfors, and their collaborators, who spent many years of travel in Finland, Lapland and Russia, recording the popular songs and stories of the peasantry and fishermen. They traveled through forests, marshes and ice-plains, on horseback, in sledges drawn by reindeer, in canoes and other primitive conveyances to collect the legends and precious runes from the lips of the minstrels. The epic, filled with the power of magic, is a Herculean prototype of unwritten history. Longfellow must have had great admiration for the beauty of the Kalevala because the Hiawatha is a faithful imitation of it, both in respect to matter as well as to meter.
The enormous influence of the Kalevala on the Finnish population, since it was first published (1835), is best proven by the remarkable transformation, real regeneration of Finland. The disclosure of these romantic tales of wonderful heroism aroused patriotism and resulted in a surprisingly universal civic and moral revival of the nation. Formerly the upper classes of Finland had been absorbed by Sweden and Russia, while the majority of the population, as William Sharp remarked, became "a listless and inert mass."
Today Finland, after long lethargy and constant retrogression, is a new-born progressive country, full of hope, pride and ambition. The fact that Finland is the only country paying its inter-national debts, is the best evidence. Of course, Providence is kind. Finland is a poor (which may be the reason why it pays its debts), barren country, otherwise it would long ago have been swallowed up by enterprising nations. Ethiopia, which is supposed to be one of the richest countries in the world, should envy Finland its indigence.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Honey - Marriage
Honey - Marriage
"Und suss wie der Honig Ist der Ehestand." (And sweet as honey is wedlock.)
In nuptial ceremonies and in the matrimonial lives of most ancient nations and of many of the primitive races to this day, honey has played just as important a rôle as in birth-rites. In Egypt, honey was considered such an essential substance that in every marriage contract the bridegroom had to promise to supply his bride yearly with a definite amount of honey. When the nuptial knot was tied, the bridegroom said, "I take you for my wife and bind myself to furnish you annually with twenty-four hins (32 pounds) of honey" (Brugsh). During Hindu wedding ceremonies honey offering was an important function. The bridegroom kissed the bride and said: "This is honey, the speech of my tongue is honey, the honey of the bee is dwelling in my mouth and in my teeth dwells peace." During the course of the services the bride's forehead, mouth, eyelids, ears and genitals were anointed with honey. In Bengal, the Brahmans believed that if the bride's pudenda were covered with honey it would produce fertility. When the Dekan Hindu bridegroom called on the bride, honey and curds were offered to him with the object of scaring away evil spirits. The Hindu firmly believed that honey had the magic power to ward off demoniacal spirits, so much feared during marriage ceremonies.
We find similar customs among African natives. In Galla-land, a country bordering on Abyssinia, honey was an important food and a principal commodity of trade. Before a wedding the Galla bridegroom had to bring a fair quantity of honey to the intended bride. If the amount were unsatisfactory, the bride and her family rejected him as a future husband. The Galla women have the reputation of being the most independent among the women of Eastern Africa.
In Morocco, the wedding guests are offered honey before the ceremonies. During the nuptial rites no honey is used because it is reserved for the cult of the dead. After the wedding the groom feasts on honey to which also the Moroccans attribute a powerful aphrodisiac effect. The nuptial supper of a Roman couple consisted of milk, honey and poppy-juice.
On the European continent among the Greeks, Nordic, Germanic, and Slavic races honey had an important function before, during and after wedding festivities. The Poles sang a song at weddings: "Diligent is the life on a farm, like the life of the bee, and marriage is sweet as honey." When a Polish bride reached her home after the ceremonies, she was led three times around the fire-place, her feet were washed and when she entered the bridal chamber she was blindfolded and honey was rubbed on her lips. In Hungary the bride baked honey cake during full moon and gave it to the groom to secure his love. During the celebration of marriages the young couples were fed with honey by wise women. This was supposed to sweeten their wedded life. In Croatia the parents of the bridegroom await him at the threshold of the house with a pitcher of honey. The container must not be made of glass.
When the groom appears he asks his mother what is in the pitcher. The answer is: "My son, it contains my honey and thy good will." When the bride enters the house she is offered by her mother-in-law a spoonful of honey. The spoon is several times withdrawn but finally with a sudden dash is put into her mouth. The bride is given, besides, a nosegay and a cup of honey. While the bride walks around the house she spreads honey over each threshold and door. In Dalmatia and Herzegovina there is the same custom; even the wedding ring is dipped into honey during the ceremonies. In Slovakia, milk and honey; in Silesia, cooked barley and honey; in Bulgaria, bread and honey are given to the bride. The Bulgarians offer a special soup to the bridal couple, called okrap, which is made from wine and honey. The wedding cake baked with honey is broken over the head of the bridegroom and some honey is rubbed on his face. The woman who anoints the groom exclaims: "Be fond of each other as the bees are fond of this honey." In Serbia, Albania, Rumania and Turkey similar customs prevail, especially among the gipsy tribes.
During Swedish wedding festivities honey was liberally used. According to ancient records in 1500, when the daughter of a wealthy Swede, named Krogenose, was married, half a ton of honey was consumed. In 1567, during the wedding feast of Sigrid Sture, 453 jars of honey were used. The Finns also did justice to honey and, more so, to honey drinks.
In modern Greece some of the ancient customs still persist. When the bride arrives at the groom's cottage, his mother stands waiting at the door with a jar of honey of which the bride must partake that the words of her lips may become sweet as honey. The remaining contents of the jar are smeared on the lintel of the door, that strife may never enter the home. In Rhodes, when the groom arrives in his new home, he dips his finger into a cup of honey and traces a cross on the door.
In Brittany, Westphalia and Lincolnshire the betrothals are announced to the bees and the hives are decorated with red or white ribbons; part of the wedding cakes are placed before them and the new couples must introduce themselves to the bees, other-wise their married life would surely be unlucky.
In Hungary, where honey always was an important food, the production had fallen off considerably after the World War. The town of Kecskemét decided that every newly married couple should receive from the municipality a beehive and a swarm of bees as a wedding present to encourage apiculture. (If one—or both—of the contracting parties were stung, the city fathers may also be blamed for it.)
We could not very well close this chapter without reflecting on the meaning of a popularly used term, honeymoon. Some philologists (probably with conjugal experiences) have suggested that this sweetest period of wedlock was compared with the moon be-cause as soon as this celestial body reaches a full phase it commences to wane, not unlike the affection of wedded couples. Others have thought that the allusion stems from the ancient custom whereby the bride and groom were wont to eat honey and drink mead during the first four weeks of their married life. That a honeymoon is not necessarily "sweet" can be adjudged from Hood's poem:
"The moon, the moon, so silver and cold, Her fickle temper has often been told— Now shady—now bright and sunny; But of all the lunar things that change, The one that shows most fickle and strange, And takes the most eccentric range, Is the moon—so called—of honey!"
"Und suss wie der Honig Ist der Ehestand." (And sweet as honey is wedlock.)
In nuptial ceremonies and in the matrimonial lives of most ancient nations and of many of the primitive races to this day, honey has played just as important a rôle as in birth-rites. In Egypt, honey was considered such an essential substance that in every marriage contract the bridegroom had to promise to supply his bride yearly with a definite amount of honey. When the nuptial knot was tied, the bridegroom said, "I take you for my wife and bind myself to furnish you annually with twenty-four hins (32 pounds) of honey" (Brugsh). During Hindu wedding ceremonies honey offering was an important function. The bridegroom kissed the bride and said: "This is honey, the speech of my tongue is honey, the honey of the bee is dwelling in my mouth and in my teeth dwells peace." During the course of the services the bride's forehead, mouth, eyelids, ears and genitals were anointed with honey. In Bengal, the Brahmans believed that if the bride's pudenda were covered with honey it would produce fertility. When the Dekan Hindu bridegroom called on the bride, honey and curds were offered to him with the object of scaring away evil spirits. The Hindu firmly believed that honey had the magic power to ward off demoniacal spirits, so much feared during marriage ceremonies.
We find similar customs among African natives. In Galla-land, a country bordering on Abyssinia, honey was an important food and a principal commodity of trade. Before a wedding the Galla bridegroom had to bring a fair quantity of honey to the intended bride. If the amount were unsatisfactory, the bride and her family rejected him as a future husband. The Galla women have the reputation of being the most independent among the women of Eastern Africa.
In Morocco, the wedding guests are offered honey before the ceremonies. During the nuptial rites no honey is used because it is reserved for the cult of the dead. After the wedding the groom feasts on honey to which also the Moroccans attribute a powerful aphrodisiac effect. The nuptial supper of a Roman couple consisted of milk, honey and poppy-juice.
On the European continent among the Greeks, Nordic, Germanic, and Slavic races honey had an important function before, during and after wedding festivities. The Poles sang a song at weddings: "Diligent is the life on a farm, like the life of the bee, and marriage is sweet as honey." When a Polish bride reached her home after the ceremonies, she was led three times around the fire-place, her feet were washed and when she entered the bridal chamber she was blindfolded and honey was rubbed on her lips. In Hungary the bride baked honey cake during full moon and gave it to the groom to secure his love. During the celebration of marriages the young couples were fed with honey by wise women. This was supposed to sweeten their wedded life. In Croatia the parents of the bridegroom await him at the threshold of the house with a pitcher of honey. The container must not be made of glass.
When the groom appears he asks his mother what is in the pitcher. The answer is: "My son, it contains my honey and thy good will." When the bride enters the house she is offered by her mother-in-law a spoonful of honey. The spoon is several times withdrawn but finally with a sudden dash is put into her mouth. The bride is given, besides, a nosegay and a cup of honey. While the bride walks around the house she spreads honey over each threshold and door. In Dalmatia and Herzegovina there is the same custom; even the wedding ring is dipped into honey during the ceremonies. In Slovakia, milk and honey; in Silesia, cooked barley and honey; in Bulgaria, bread and honey are given to the bride. The Bulgarians offer a special soup to the bridal couple, called okrap, which is made from wine and honey. The wedding cake baked with honey is broken over the head of the bridegroom and some honey is rubbed on his face. The woman who anoints the groom exclaims: "Be fond of each other as the bees are fond of this honey." In Serbia, Albania, Rumania and Turkey similar customs prevail, especially among the gipsy tribes.
During Swedish wedding festivities honey was liberally used. According to ancient records in 1500, when the daughter of a wealthy Swede, named Krogenose, was married, half a ton of honey was consumed. In 1567, during the wedding feast of Sigrid Sture, 453 jars of honey were used. The Finns also did justice to honey and, more so, to honey drinks.
In modern Greece some of the ancient customs still persist. When the bride arrives at the groom's cottage, his mother stands waiting at the door with a jar of honey of which the bride must partake that the words of her lips may become sweet as honey. The remaining contents of the jar are smeared on the lintel of the door, that strife may never enter the home. In Rhodes, when the groom arrives in his new home, he dips his finger into a cup of honey and traces a cross on the door.
In Brittany, Westphalia and Lincolnshire the betrothals are announced to the bees and the hives are decorated with red or white ribbons; part of the wedding cakes are placed before them and the new couples must introduce themselves to the bees, other-wise their married life would surely be unlucky.
In Hungary, where honey always was an important food, the production had fallen off considerably after the World War. The town of Kecskemét decided that every newly married couple should receive from the municipality a beehive and a swarm of bees as a wedding present to encourage apiculture. (If one—or both—of the contracting parties were stung, the city fathers may also be blamed for it.)
We could not very well close this chapter without reflecting on the meaning of a popularly used term, honeymoon. Some philologists (probably with conjugal experiences) have suggested that this sweetest period of wedlock was compared with the moon be-cause as soon as this celestial body reaches a full phase it commences to wane, not unlike the affection of wedded couples. Others have thought that the allusion stems from the ancient custom whereby the bride and groom were wont to eat honey and drink mead during the first four weeks of their married life. That a honeymoon is not necessarily "sweet" can be adjudged from Hood's poem:
"The moon, the moon, so silver and cold, Her fickle temper has often been told— Now shady—now bright and sunny; But of all the lunar things that change, The one that shows most fickle and strange, And takes the most eccentric range, Is the moon—so called—of honey!"
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Honey - Birth
Honey - Birth
The use of honey was only rarely omitted during birth-rites. Among Babylonians, Iranians, Egyptians and Hebrews, honey and milk was the first nutriment which touched the lips of a new-born. Calvin mentions in Isaiah, Ch. IX, that, "the Jews to this day, give their infants a taste of honey and butter before they suck." The Galician Jews put a piece of honeycomb into the cradle before the infant is placed in it. During Hindu birth ceremonies, after a male infant is born and the umbilical cord is severed, the father touches the lips of the son with honey taken from a golden vessel and applies it with a golden spoon, at the same time giving the child its name. The Hindus hang a branch of the sacred tree, smeared with honey, over their doors with the invocation: "The young child cries to it; the cow that has a young calf shall low to it." Amongst the Mohammedans in the Province of Punjab (N. W. India) the most respected member of the family puts ghutti (made of honey) into the mouth of the infant as its first food and holds honey over its head to ward off evil spirits.
There were similar customs among the Greek, Roman, Slavic and all Anglo-Saxon races. The Scotch Highlanders, soon after the birth of a child, take a fresh branch of ash (melia, mel honey) which secretes a sweet manna-like juice, burn it at one end and after smearing some honey on the other end, they daub with it the lips of the infant. The Scotch believe that honey, being a sacred substance, should be the first food to touch the palate of the new-born. An identical ceremony prevails in Finland and in the Caucasus. During birth ceremonies in modern Greece a chosen child smears honey on the lips of the infant with the prayer: "Be thou as sweet as this honey." To give honey to an infant as its first food was also a heathen Germanic custom.
If honey were placed on the lips of an infant by some miraculous means, it was believed that the act bestowed the gift of poetic inspiration and eloquence or that the child would become a saint. Cicero described how Plato, yet an infant, was taken by his father to Mount Hymettus to offer sacrifices to the Muses. The child was laid in a thicket and while he slept a . swarm of bees built a honeycomb in his mouth which presaged the singular sweetness of his discourses and his future eloquence. The same miracle happened to Xenophon, Sophocles, Pindar, Virgil, Lucanus, St. Ambrose, St. John Chrysostomus, St. Dominic, St. Isidor and many others. Among the Mohammedans, there is a superstition that if one dreams of a bee he will become a great singer. The bee was a symbol of the Koran. In Hungary the population believed that when a son was born to the King, the bees put honey on his lips for good luck. Homer was nursed by priestesses whose breasts distilled honey. Zeus, the god of Mount Olympus, was nursed on honey. The Greeks and Teutons believed that honey conferred immortality.
(Thomas Huxley, the famous biologist, humorously referred in his biography to the magic power of honey to endow mellifluous eloquence. He deplored his lack of oratorical talent, because the power of speech gains higher places in Church and State than worth, ability or honest work. Huxley blamed his incompetency in this respect on a lamentable incident: "A neighboring beehive emitted a swarm and the new colony, pitching on the window sill, was making its way into the room when a horrified servant shut down the sash. If that well-meaning woman had sustained from her ill-timed interference the swarm might have settled on my lips and I should have been endowed with eloquence.")
Once honey had touched the lips of an infant, the act was sup-posed to confer on it a certain magic spell. According to the ancient laws of Friesland, a father was permitted to expose an infant to its doom, but after the child had tasted honey and milk its life had to be spared. Hieron II as an infant was exposed in the fields by his father Hierocles, because the child was born to him by one of his servants. The bees cared for the foundling and fed him on honey. When the father learned of the miracle his attitude toward his son changed. The child was raised with great solicitude and received a liberal education. Hieron subsequently became a noted patron of literature and chief of the army, and as such won the battle of Mylae (296 B.C.). After the victory he became king of Syracuse.
When the Pharaoh of Egypt gave the order that all male Hebrew children should be destroyed by drowning them in the Nile, Jewish mothers were constrained to give birth to their children in the fields. The mother of Moses kept the future Prophet concealed for three months, and it would not be surprising if he also were brought up on honey. This might account for his wis dom, eloquence and prophetic powers. According to the Biblical legend (Exod. R. 23: 8), the exposed children were given two pebbles, from one of which they obtained oil, and from the other, honey.
The use of honey was only rarely omitted during birth-rites. Among Babylonians, Iranians, Egyptians and Hebrews, honey and milk was the first nutriment which touched the lips of a new-born. Calvin mentions in Isaiah, Ch. IX, that, "the Jews to this day, give their infants a taste of honey and butter before they suck." The Galician Jews put a piece of honeycomb into the cradle before the infant is placed in it. During Hindu birth ceremonies, after a male infant is born and the umbilical cord is severed, the father touches the lips of the son with honey taken from a golden vessel and applies it with a golden spoon, at the same time giving the child its name. The Hindus hang a branch of the sacred tree, smeared with honey, over their doors with the invocation: "The young child cries to it; the cow that has a young calf shall low to it." Amongst the Mohammedans in the Province of Punjab (N. W. India) the most respected member of the family puts ghutti (made of honey) into the mouth of the infant as its first food and holds honey over its head to ward off evil spirits.
There were similar customs among the Greek, Roman, Slavic and all Anglo-Saxon races. The Scotch Highlanders, soon after the birth of a child, take a fresh branch of ash (melia, mel honey) which secretes a sweet manna-like juice, burn it at one end and after smearing some honey on the other end, they daub with it the lips of the infant. The Scotch believe that honey, being a sacred substance, should be the first food to touch the palate of the new-born. An identical ceremony prevails in Finland and in the Caucasus. During birth ceremonies in modern Greece a chosen child smears honey on the lips of the infant with the prayer: "Be thou as sweet as this honey." To give honey to an infant as its first food was also a heathen Germanic custom.
If honey were placed on the lips of an infant by some miraculous means, it was believed that the act bestowed the gift of poetic inspiration and eloquence or that the child would become a saint. Cicero described how Plato, yet an infant, was taken by his father to Mount Hymettus to offer sacrifices to the Muses. The child was laid in a thicket and while he slept a . swarm of bees built a honeycomb in his mouth which presaged the singular sweetness of his discourses and his future eloquence. The same miracle happened to Xenophon, Sophocles, Pindar, Virgil, Lucanus, St. Ambrose, St. John Chrysostomus, St. Dominic, St. Isidor and many others. Among the Mohammedans, there is a superstition that if one dreams of a bee he will become a great singer. The bee was a symbol of the Koran. In Hungary the population believed that when a son was born to the King, the bees put honey on his lips for good luck. Homer was nursed by priestesses whose breasts distilled honey. Zeus, the god of Mount Olympus, was nursed on honey. The Greeks and Teutons believed that honey conferred immortality.
(Thomas Huxley, the famous biologist, humorously referred in his biography to the magic power of honey to endow mellifluous eloquence. He deplored his lack of oratorical talent, because the power of speech gains higher places in Church and State than worth, ability or honest work. Huxley blamed his incompetency in this respect on a lamentable incident: "A neighboring beehive emitted a swarm and the new colony, pitching on the window sill, was making its way into the room when a horrified servant shut down the sash. If that well-meaning woman had sustained from her ill-timed interference the swarm might have settled on my lips and I should have been endowed with eloquence.")
Once honey had touched the lips of an infant, the act was sup-posed to confer on it a certain magic spell. According to the ancient laws of Friesland, a father was permitted to expose an infant to its doom, but after the child had tasted honey and milk its life had to be spared. Hieron II as an infant was exposed in the fields by his father Hierocles, because the child was born to him by one of his servants. The bees cared for the foundling and fed him on honey. When the father learned of the miracle his attitude toward his son changed. The child was raised with great solicitude and received a liberal education. Hieron subsequently became a noted patron of literature and chief of the army, and as such won the battle of Mylae (296 B.C.). After the victory he became king of Syracuse.
When the Pharaoh of Egypt gave the order that all male Hebrew children should be destroyed by drowning them in the Nile, Jewish mothers were constrained to give birth to their children in the fields. The mother of Moses kept the future Prophet concealed for three months, and it would not be surprising if he also were brought up on honey. This might account for his wis dom, eloquence and prophetic powers. According to the Biblical legend (Exod. R. 23: 8), the exposed children were given two pebbles, from one of which they obtained oil, and from the other, honey.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Honey - Words To The Wise
Honey - Words To The Wise
TODAY honey does not have the significancy which it enjoyed for thousands of years. It was forced into the background upon the intrusion of refined sugar in the middle of the eighteenth century. This is a regrettable error. It would greatly benefit humanity if honey could be restored to the rank which it occupied in antiquity and physicians, above all, should help the good cause. The modern housewife uses "honey" only . . . as a word, when she is anxious to have a new fur coat, an automobile or jewelry.
Honey is physiological sugar and not a counterfeit. Through the prodigious genius of Nature, through a wonderful cycle, the energy of the sun is preserved in the nectar and pollen of, flowers, and is liberated when honey is eaten. The influence of ultraviolet rays on sugar, imparting inhibitive power against the growth of various bacteria, yeasts and molds, is also conveyed to honey, which may be one of the reasons that it has such distinct anti-septic and antifermentative qualities. Pollen, which honey contains, even though by accidental admixture, is the procreative germ, the endocrine of plant-life, and is transmitted into the human body when honey is consumed. The newest discoveries in biochemistry emphasize that quantity is not essential to produce effects. Honey is reasonable in price, is more nutritious than many other foods, for instance, butter, and keeps almost indefinitely.
Honey ought to have more attention in feeding not only the healthy but invalids and infants. Honey behooves the well and the ill: it is a good, practical and delicious food, the source of the oldest and most salubrious drinks and an excellent remedial agent. Honey conserves health and also restores health. It is more than a plain sweet. There are treasures buried in honey, yet undiscovered by science. The ancients compared it with molten gold. Many diseases, which never follow the consumption of honey, could be avoided by using honey instead of resorting to the indiscriminate, though admittedly more comfortable, substitution of sugar. When will people wean themselves, for instance, from the corrupt habit of "sugaring" their coffee, tea and other beverages? By right every family and restaurant table should be provided with a handy drip-cut pitcherful of honey to sweeten coffee, tea, grape-fruit, berries, salads, pancakes, etc., and to make it possible for anyone to take occasionally a glassful of hot water-honey mixture to promote a free flow of bile and induce gastric and intestinal activity.
There are, of course, a few people with whom honey does not agree. They will experience a griping soon after its consumption. This is due to the high hygroscopic property of the sub-stance, which readily absorbs gastric and intestinal fluids. The thirst which one feels after consuming honey is due to this circumstance, or rather advantage, because if the craving for water is gratified the system benefits by it. Diluting honey with water or mixing it with other foods will, at times, prevent such griping.
The thirst produced by the consumption of honey with the urge to drink more water is extremely important. The average per-son does not drink sufficient water. The human system requires daily about two and one-half quarts of liquid. Water, besides being a regulator of body temperature, is an important vehicle for removing waste products. Seventy per cent of the body weight consists of water and any loss must be replaced.
Certain individuals have an idiosyncrasy for honey. They can-not eat even the smallest amount. This is often an allergic condition, that is, they are honey-sensitized, like people who suffer from hay fever or asthma are sensitized to certain pollens which produce these conditions. Some people can eat extracted honey but not comb-honey and can not approach bee-materials, such as frames, combs, etc., without provoking an asthmatic attack. There are people who are sensitive to honey from one State and can eat honey from another State without trouble. Certain people can not tolerate buckwheat or sage honey but any other type agrees with them. In general, sensitivity toward honey is very rare and is least common among all food allergies. It is best for these few victims to leave honey alone.
Sugar consumption has increased in the United States during the last half century by 500%. While 100 years ago the daily per capita industrial sugar consumption represented 45 calories, today it has increased to 550 calories, that is, about twelve times. As the daily requirement of an average individual is approximately 2500 calories, commercial sugar supplies one-fifth of the total. This amount is far beyond the mark, because it encroaches on the scope of calories to be supplied by starches, fats, animal and vegetable proteins and, last but not least, by more beneficial simple sugars. It is not surprising that obesity is on the increase. Uncle Sam will soon lose his lanky figure and acquire the paunch of John Bull. The daily candy expenditure of the United States is well over a million dollars.
Alfred W. McCann thought that America had become a nation of "sugar-hogs." In 1830 the annual per capita consumption was 71/2 pounds; in 1870—23 pounds; in 1918—89 pounds and in 1926-120 pounds. During prohibition years sugar consumption greatly increased, not only because there was a demand for a substitute "pick up," but also because most breweries converted their facilities into candy and chocolate factories, and manufactured soft drinks. Since the repeal of the Prohibition Act the yearly sugar consumption has decreased twelve pounds per capita. To-day it is about one hundred and eight pounds. Each man, woman or child in the United States consumes about one-third of a pound; that is, about a teacupful of sugar a day. According to the 1919 statistics this amount was distributed as follows :
The United States is the "sweetest" country in the world. (If this has two meanings, both are correct!) While the entire world consumes forty billion pounds of sugar yearly, the consumption in the United States alone is ten billion pounds. The regrettable part is that most of it is imported. All the sweetening could be sup-plied by domestic honeys and there would be no need of one hundred and eight pounds of sugar per capita, because honey satiates more quickly than sugar. The person who will succeed in inventing a process of putting honey in cube or powder form will prove to be the greatest benefactor of humanity. The hygroscopic, that is, the water absorbing quality of honey will, how-ever, place an almost unsurmountable obstacle in his way. (Dr. Bevan mentions in The Honey Bee that the Jews of Moldavia and the Ukraine prepare from honey a sort of sugar, which is solid and as white as snow. They expose honey in a vessel, which is a bad conductor of calories, to frost for three weeks, in a place where neither sun nor snow can reach it. By this process the honey, without being congealed, becomes clear and hard like candy. They send it to the distilleries at Danzig.)
Sweets, coffee and tea remain, so far, our best stimulants. They are less harmful than alcohol, especially if this is taken in excess. In 1918, during the World War the sugar rations of the A. E. F. were increased 100% and coffee, 50%, to supply the soldiers with much-needed energy. In ancient times, warriors used honey for this purpose. Honey, of course, will bestow more benefit during the winter months.
It is singular that the population of the United States, considering the excellent nutritive, tonic and protective value of honey, has not as yet become honey-conscious. There is no other country in the world where the public is more interested in health and, of course, in diet problems than in America. Innumerable books are published on the subject and there is an endless list of health magazines. The daily papers have their columns on physical culture and diet; there are free lectures; and colleges, schools, commercial and industrial organizations, federal, state and community health officials vie in giving health suggestions.
Officials of circulating libraries will tell you that more books are read on health than on any other topic. The books plainly show the wear and tear.
A remarkable fact in modern literature, as already mentioned, is that honey is so sadly neglected, though it is the end-purpose of apiculture. In textbooks, honey is treated more from a technical viewpoint, namely, how to produce as much honey as possible. The same comment applies to foreign literature. The writer has found the lengthy chapter on honey in the ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture, edited by E. R. Root, the most exhaustive and important treatise on the subject.
Though there is an old proverb that "good wine needs no bush," yet the American Honey Institute uses its best efforts to popularize the sale and a more widespread use of honey. The lack of interest and the apparent opposition of the medical profession, of course, entails a tremendous handicap. Several years ago a pamphlet appeared, written by E. R. Root, the Editor of Gleanings in Bee Culture, entitled Honey as Food, but indorse-ment by the Committee on Foods of the American Medical Association was refused because they considered it "an offense to honest advertising." The booklet was a compilation of actual and valuable statements about honey by eminent physicians, many of them university professors, chiefs of health, food, nutrition departments and hospitals; excerpts from outstanding medical journals, etc., but the learned Board considered it a "hodgepodge of misinformation concerning `alleged' (the quotation marks are the author's) values of honey." (Journ. Am. Med. Assn., June 23, 1934).
Among the "misinformers" whose statements were quoted in the pamphlet, we find the following names:
The erudite Committee, however, accepted and approved one suggestion of the pamphlet about the usefulness of honey as an antifreeze in automobile radiators,* as "probably the most en-lightening paragraph of the entire leaflet." Needless to say the Council exceeded its authority in regard to automobiles, inasmuch as they have no dictatorial rights as yet in such matters. The flippant and ill-disposed argument certainly did not benefit the cause of honey. (Luckily the pamphlet omitted to mention another novel use of honey, that of filling golf balls, otherwise, very likely, the golf balls would have obtained commendation and honey, another stroke.)
Of course, the acceptance of honey by the medical profession as a protective and curative substance and their indorsement would create pandemonium not only in medical circles but among pharmaceutical chemists, wholesale and retail druggists, radio announcers, even undertakers, not to mention the sugar refining companies, the candy manufacturers and retailers, soda counters, etc. It would be a veritable economic catastrophe. The sale of laxative remedies (it would be interesting to know their number), digestive and headache powders, bicarbonate of soda, enema bags, and rectal suppositories might entirely stop. To these we may add sedatives, various cough remedies, expectorants, throat lozenges, gargles, etc. The external use of honey would make a dent in the sale of antiseptics and have influence even on the cosmetic counters.
The wide use of honey would also cripple surgical practice be-cause hemorrhoid, gastric ulcer, gall bladder, appendicitis, tonsil and many other operations would greatly decline or entirely dis-appear, not considering the moral effect which the recollection of former unnecessary operations would cast on discredited surgery.
TODAY honey does not have the significancy which it enjoyed for thousands of years. It was forced into the background upon the intrusion of refined sugar in the middle of the eighteenth century. This is a regrettable error. It would greatly benefit humanity if honey could be restored to the rank which it occupied in antiquity and physicians, above all, should help the good cause. The modern housewife uses "honey" only . . . as a word, when she is anxious to have a new fur coat, an automobile or jewelry.
Honey is physiological sugar and not a counterfeit. Through the prodigious genius of Nature, through a wonderful cycle, the energy of the sun is preserved in the nectar and pollen of, flowers, and is liberated when honey is eaten. The influence of ultraviolet rays on sugar, imparting inhibitive power against the growth of various bacteria, yeasts and molds, is also conveyed to honey, which may be one of the reasons that it has such distinct anti-septic and antifermentative qualities. Pollen, which honey contains, even though by accidental admixture, is the procreative germ, the endocrine of plant-life, and is transmitted into the human body when honey is consumed. The newest discoveries in biochemistry emphasize that quantity is not essential to produce effects. Honey is reasonable in price, is more nutritious than many other foods, for instance, butter, and keeps almost indefinitely.
Honey ought to have more attention in feeding not only the healthy but invalids and infants. Honey behooves the well and the ill: it is a good, practical and delicious food, the source of the oldest and most salubrious drinks and an excellent remedial agent. Honey conserves health and also restores health. It is more than a plain sweet. There are treasures buried in honey, yet undiscovered by science. The ancients compared it with molten gold. Many diseases, which never follow the consumption of honey, could be avoided by using honey instead of resorting to the indiscriminate, though admittedly more comfortable, substitution of sugar. When will people wean themselves, for instance, from the corrupt habit of "sugaring" their coffee, tea and other beverages? By right every family and restaurant table should be provided with a handy drip-cut pitcherful of honey to sweeten coffee, tea, grape-fruit, berries, salads, pancakes, etc., and to make it possible for anyone to take occasionally a glassful of hot water-honey mixture to promote a free flow of bile and induce gastric and intestinal activity.
There are, of course, a few people with whom honey does not agree. They will experience a griping soon after its consumption. This is due to the high hygroscopic property of the sub-stance, which readily absorbs gastric and intestinal fluids. The thirst which one feels after consuming honey is due to this circumstance, or rather advantage, because if the craving for water is gratified the system benefits by it. Diluting honey with water or mixing it with other foods will, at times, prevent such griping.
The thirst produced by the consumption of honey with the urge to drink more water is extremely important. The average per-son does not drink sufficient water. The human system requires daily about two and one-half quarts of liquid. Water, besides being a regulator of body temperature, is an important vehicle for removing waste products. Seventy per cent of the body weight consists of water and any loss must be replaced.
Certain individuals have an idiosyncrasy for honey. They can-not eat even the smallest amount. This is often an allergic condition, that is, they are honey-sensitized, like people who suffer from hay fever or asthma are sensitized to certain pollens which produce these conditions. Some people can eat extracted honey but not comb-honey and can not approach bee-materials, such as frames, combs, etc., without provoking an asthmatic attack. There are people who are sensitive to honey from one State and can eat honey from another State without trouble. Certain people can not tolerate buckwheat or sage honey but any other type agrees with them. In general, sensitivity toward honey is very rare and is least common among all food allergies. It is best for these few victims to leave honey alone.
Sugar consumption has increased in the United States during the last half century by 500%. While 100 years ago the daily per capita industrial sugar consumption represented 45 calories, today it has increased to 550 calories, that is, about twelve times. As the daily requirement of an average individual is approximately 2500 calories, commercial sugar supplies one-fifth of the total. This amount is far beyond the mark, because it encroaches on the scope of calories to be supplied by starches, fats, animal and vegetable proteins and, last but not least, by more beneficial simple sugars. It is not surprising that obesity is on the increase. Uncle Sam will soon lose his lanky figure and acquire the paunch of John Bull. The daily candy expenditure of the United States is well over a million dollars.
Alfred W. McCann thought that America had become a nation of "sugar-hogs." In 1830 the annual per capita consumption was 71/2 pounds; in 1870—23 pounds; in 1918—89 pounds and in 1926-120 pounds. During prohibition years sugar consumption greatly increased, not only because there was a demand for a substitute "pick up," but also because most breweries converted their facilities into candy and chocolate factories, and manufactured soft drinks. Since the repeal of the Prohibition Act the yearly sugar consumption has decreased twelve pounds per capita. To-day it is about one hundred and eight pounds. Each man, woman or child in the United States consumes about one-third of a pound; that is, about a teacupful of sugar a day. According to the 1919 statistics this amount was distributed as follows :
- 80% home consumption
- 10% by confectioners
- 6% by bakeries
- 3% in soft drinks
- 1% in tobacco and chewing gum
The United States is the "sweetest" country in the world. (If this has two meanings, both are correct!) While the entire world consumes forty billion pounds of sugar yearly, the consumption in the United States alone is ten billion pounds. The regrettable part is that most of it is imported. All the sweetening could be sup-plied by domestic honeys and there would be no need of one hundred and eight pounds of sugar per capita, because honey satiates more quickly than sugar. The person who will succeed in inventing a process of putting honey in cube or powder form will prove to be the greatest benefactor of humanity. The hygroscopic, that is, the water absorbing quality of honey will, how-ever, place an almost unsurmountable obstacle in his way. (Dr. Bevan mentions in The Honey Bee that the Jews of Moldavia and the Ukraine prepare from honey a sort of sugar, which is solid and as white as snow. They expose honey in a vessel, which is a bad conductor of calories, to frost for three weeks, in a place where neither sun nor snow can reach it. By this process the honey, without being congealed, becomes clear and hard like candy. They send it to the distilleries at Danzig.)
Sweets, coffee and tea remain, so far, our best stimulants. They are less harmful than alcohol, especially if this is taken in excess. In 1918, during the World War the sugar rations of the A. E. F. were increased 100% and coffee, 50%, to supply the soldiers with much-needed energy. In ancient times, warriors used honey for this purpose. Honey, of course, will bestow more benefit during the winter months.
It is singular that the population of the United States, considering the excellent nutritive, tonic and protective value of honey, has not as yet become honey-conscious. There is no other country in the world where the public is more interested in health and, of course, in diet problems than in America. Innumerable books are published on the subject and there is an endless list of health magazines. The daily papers have their columns on physical culture and diet; there are free lectures; and colleges, schools, commercial and industrial organizations, federal, state and community health officials vie in giving health suggestions.
Officials of circulating libraries will tell you that more books are read on health than on any other topic. The books plainly show the wear and tear.
A remarkable fact in modern literature, as already mentioned, is that honey is so sadly neglected, though it is the end-purpose of apiculture. In textbooks, honey is treated more from a technical viewpoint, namely, how to produce as much honey as possible. The same comment applies to foreign literature. The writer has found the lengthy chapter on honey in the ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture, edited by E. R. Root, the most exhaustive and important treatise on the subject.
Though there is an old proverb that "good wine needs no bush," yet the American Honey Institute uses its best efforts to popularize the sale and a more widespread use of honey. The lack of interest and the apparent opposition of the medical profession, of course, entails a tremendous handicap. Several years ago a pamphlet appeared, written by E. R. Root, the Editor of Gleanings in Bee Culture, entitled Honey as Food, but indorse-ment by the Committee on Foods of the American Medical Association was refused because they considered it "an offense to honest advertising." The booklet was a compilation of actual and valuable statements about honey by eminent physicians, many of them university professors, chiefs of health, food, nutrition departments and hospitals; excerpts from outstanding medical journals, etc., but the learned Board considered it a "hodgepodge of misinformation concerning `alleged' (the quotation marks are the author's) values of honey." (Journ. Am. Med. Assn., June 23, 1934).
Among the "misinformers" whose statements were quoted in the pamphlet, we find the following names:
- Dr. E. P. Joslin, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
- Dr. F. G. Banting, the discoverer of insulin
- Dr. B. P. Hawk, Professor of Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia
- Dr. C. H. English, Medical Director of the Lincoln National Life Ins. Co.
- Dr. G. N. W. Thomas, of Edinburgh (Lancet, 207: 1924) Dr. W. G. Sackett, Bacteriologist, Colorado Experiment Station.
- Dr. H. E. Barnard, Food Chemist of the American Honey Institute
- Dr. J. H. Kellogg, Battle Creek Sanitarium
- Dr. Arnold Lorand, internationally known physician and author
- Dr. Paul Luttinger, Pediatrist
- Dr. Clarence W. Leib, author of Eat, Drink and be Healthy Sir Henry Baldwin, King George Fifth's dentist
- Dr. Leonard Williams, London, author of The Science and Art of Living and others.
The erudite Committee, however, accepted and approved one suggestion of the pamphlet about the usefulness of honey as an antifreeze in automobile radiators,* as "probably the most en-lightening paragraph of the entire leaflet." Needless to say the Council exceeded its authority in regard to automobiles, inasmuch as they have no dictatorial rights as yet in such matters. The flippant and ill-disposed argument certainly did not benefit the cause of honey. (Luckily the pamphlet omitted to mention another novel use of honey, that of filling golf balls, otherwise, very likely, the golf balls would have obtained commendation and honey, another stroke.)
Of course, the acceptance of honey by the medical profession as a protective and curative substance and their indorsement would create pandemonium not only in medical circles but among pharmaceutical chemists, wholesale and retail druggists, radio announcers, even undertakers, not to mention the sugar refining companies, the candy manufacturers and retailers, soda counters, etc. It would be a veritable economic catastrophe. The sale of laxative remedies (it would be interesting to know their number), digestive and headache powders, bicarbonate of soda, enema bags, and rectal suppositories might entirely stop. To these we may add sedatives, various cough remedies, expectorants, throat lozenges, gargles, etc. The external use of honey would make a dent in the sale of antiseptics and have influence even on the cosmetic counters.
The wide use of honey would also cripple surgical practice be-cause hemorrhoid, gastric ulcer, gall bladder, appendicitis, tonsil and many other operations would greatly decline or entirely dis-appear, not considering the moral effect which the recollection of former unnecessary operations would cast on discredited surgery.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Honey In Historic Times
Honey In Historic Times
WE DERIVE our knowledge of the earliest use and importance of honey in historic times from archives of the ancient cultural states, Babylon, Assyria, Persia, India, Egypt, Greece and Rome. The oldest existing scripts corroborate the fact that bees were already domesticated creatures and honey was extensively used for food, drink, medicine and exclusively for sweetening purposes. Honey was an important commodity. Taxes and tributes were imposed in the form of payments of honey and wax. It was equivalent to currency. Today, in the twentieth century, we could understand the vital importance of honey in the domestic life of bygone ages only if we were forced to relinquish completely the use of industrial sugar. This would overload the imagination of even a most daring dreamer.
We do not know of any people on earth, including savage tribes, who did not cultivate bees for their honey with the exception of the native Indians of the Americas and the Australian indigenes. Honeybees were unknown to them and they obtained their scanty supply of honey from stingless bees.
Before parchment, paper and writing were invented, pictorial engravings on stones conveyed the meaning of human conceptions. Geometric ideography was the first attempt of antiquity to express and perpetuate thoughts on lapidary specimens. Animals and plants were later objects and finally, anthropomorphic images. We find most petroglyphic carvings in Egypt, India, Mexico and Peru.
WE DERIVE our knowledge of the earliest use and importance of honey in historic times from archives of the ancient cultural states, Babylon, Assyria, Persia, India, Egypt, Greece and Rome. The oldest existing scripts corroborate the fact that bees were already domesticated creatures and honey was extensively used for food, drink, medicine and exclusively for sweetening purposes. Honey was an important commodity. Taxes and tributes were imposed in the form of payments of honey and wax. It was equivalent to currency. Today, in the twentieth century, we could understand the vital importance of honey in the domestic life of bygone ages only if we were forced to relinquish completely the use of industrial sugar. This would overload the imagination of even a most daring dreamer.
We do not know of any people on earth, including savage tribes, who did not cultivate bees for their honey with the exception of the native Indians of the Americas and the Australian indigenes. Honeybees were unknown to them and they obtained their scanty supply of honey from stingless bees.
Before parchment, paper and writing were invented, pictorial engravings on stones conveyed the meaning of human conceptions. Geometric ideography was the first attempt of antiquity to express and perpetuate thoughts on lapidary specimens. Animals and plants were later objects and finally, anthropomorphic images. We find most petroglyphic carvings in Egypt, India, Mexico and Peru.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
American Honey Lore
American Honey Lore
In American folklore, young as it is, we find many tales which reflect on honey. H. B. Parks, in "The Lost Honey Mines in Texas", Southwest Review, (1930. 16.) remarks: "The best place and time to hear honey-cave stories is some bee-yard in the chaparral of Southwest Texas, when the extracting crew is resting around the campfire after a hard day's work. From the prevalence and absurdity of the legends, however, it is safe to infer that they are of long standing."
"The tales of bee-caves have much in common with stories about lost mines," Parks continues. . . . The mouths of the caves were supposed to be guarded by huge rattlesnakes, vicious bats, scorpions; occasionally, by ghosts. Usually, as the story goes, some surveyor entered the cave about thirty years ago and reported vast rooms filled with honey in pure white combs. Often a well-driller in the vicinity has passed, they say, through just thirty feet of honey and wax. And someone can always (for a certain consideration and not otherwise) show you the location of the cave.
The Story of Bee Mountain, as described by Parks, is very popular. It was disclosed to two boys by a cowpuncher who was well acquainted with the mountain and who had procured plenty of honey there himself. According to the informant, this mountain was a hollow hill, conical in shape and several thousand feet in height. On one side was an opening; and if the searchers could have used sulphur fumes, sufficiently strong to stupefy the bees, they might have entered the interior of the mountain, where hundreds and thousands of pounds of honey were suspended from the roof. There was also a rumor afloat that some boys had attempted to invade it, but they were frightened away by Cherokee Indians.
Another story, according to Parks, was told by a man who could remember that during his early childhood Indians would come after every wet spring to obtain honey from bees living in colonies, attached to the undersurface of a wide projecting rock at the top of a nearby cliff, some seventy feet above the bed of a river. The Indians reached the honey by splicing together mesquite poles. Then some light Indian would climb the pole and the others would move it from place to place, while the Indian aloft lowered the honeycombs by means of a rope and a grass sack. Once a group of hostile Indians came to gather some honey, and after they had obtained all they desired, turned on the white settlers and killed many of them. Mr. Parks visited Bee Mountain several years ago, and counted some three hundred colonies of bees attached to an overhanging rock. At the base of the bluff were the remains of hundreds of pieces of mesquite poles, formerly parts of ladders used probably by the Indians.
`Bee Cave up Blanco" seems to be famous everywhere except along the Blanco River. An old hunter said that one man in his party had climbed to the mouth of a great cave along the banks of the river. On arriving at the opening, he was completely covered by thousands of bees and he was saved from being stung to death only by his heavy clothing. He was able to drive the bees from his eyes just long enough to obtain a glimpse of the cave, where he beheld a solid wall of white honeycombs. The man later re-turned with a companion, and with the aid of smoke and the light of torches the hunters were enabled to enter this gigantic hive. They were approaching beautiful sheets of honeycombs when a warning note caused them to look to the floor of the cave. Horrified, they discovered that they were standing at the edge of what appeared to be a solid mass of wriggling, twisting rattlesnakes. The hunters, by quick movement, regained the entrance in safety.
Another famous bee cave, Parks continues, is reported to be located very close to the City of San Marcos, in the side of a cliff. The entire rock composing the bluff is full of holes and this is the home, not only of an immense colony of bees, but also of many snakes, rattlesnakes being predominant. According to the story, a group of men tried to open a hole in the side of this bluff. The leader said that he had been assured that there were hundreds of pounds of honey and beeswax in the cave, and he felt certain that this treasure could be obtained with the aid of a patented smoke gun which he possessed. Carrying the famous smoke gun and a lantern, one of the members explored the cave to a depth of several thousands of feet. He returned with the report that enormous amounts of honey and wax were almost at their finger tips. The exploring company tried to enlarge the opening, but as soon as they commenced to pound on the rock, snakes began to issue from every little hole in the face of the bluff, and, while no one was hurt, the sight was so terrible that the men fled and no amount of hidden treasure could induce them to return.
The bee cave in the Davis Mountains is another place that can be "easily" approached. The opening is as large as the doorway of an immense cathedral. With proper protection a person can enter the cave and is at once astonished by the curtainlike sheets of honeycomb which hang from the ceiling. As far as one penetrates into the cave this white honeycomb extends, one sheet right after another. The terrible thing about the cave, however, is super-natural. The first thing that attracts the attention of the explorer is the fact that he is standing in the midst of dozens of human skeletons. If he proceeds, he feels a sudden chill in the atmosphere and something seems to take hold of him in such a way that he cannot move farther inward, although he can see nothing to stop him. If the adventurer does not heed the warning and tries to go still farther, he is crushed by an unknown force and falls dead to the floor. Should his companions attempt to remove the body, they, too, are stricken with death and add to this pile of grim reminders of the force which protects the honey bees of the Davis Mountains. (All these stories are somewhat reminiscent of the legend about the four Greeks, who tried to plunder the grotto of Zeus.)
The cave up the Nueces is thought to be located in the face of a cliff some thousand feet in height. During the spring season, to one standing on the top of the bluff, the bees going and coming from the mouth of the cave resemble a great stream of smoke; and the hum of their wings is so loud that the roar can be heard for miles. According to the story, thirty years ago a surveyor discovered a second entrance and, making a torch of his coat, went into the cave, protected by the smoke of the burning garment. He passed through room after room filled with long white sheets of purest guajillo honey, and estimated that the cave contained several million pounds. Some of the combs were at least fifty feet from top to bottom. Before the surveyor had time to make the proper preparations to remove the honey, he fell sick and died. Just before his death, he called a doctor and gave him a map showing the entrance to the bee cave. A story was current in San Antonio some five or six years ago that this map was on sale for $500. A second version is that a ranchman living near this canyon had a well drained for water. Some fifty feet down, the drill-bit entered a cavity, and when a sand bucket was substituted for the rock-bit, honey and beeswax were brought up in great quantities. The cavity was thirty feet from top to bottom.
Another story, Parks relates, is that of an old beekeeper and former cowboy, "Jones," who said that up the Nueces canyon the whole wall was filled with bees. With a companion, he planned to take advantage of the bees, and to become rich by selling honey. "Jones" and his friend bought a blacksmith's bellows and made a machine, which they mounted on a sled, for blowing sulphur fumes. A honey extractor was placed on another sled. The men then bought two colonies of bees and several burros. When the cave-bees had finished gathering the spring crop of honey, "Jones" and a curious caravan set out for the canyon. At the mouth of the canyon, the party made camp. The next day they pushed the smoke engine as far as the first bee cave, fired it up, and pumped the fumes into the skeleton rock that guarded the honey. After a hard day's work, the bees in this cave were all killed. That night, two colonies of bees in hives were placed in front of the cave. The next day these hive-bees worked overtime, stealing the honey from the cave. In the evening, "Jones" and his companion, as the story goes, extracted three hundred pounds of honey which they had secured with the aid of these two colonies. Elated by the success of the scheme, they sent for more colonies. By the use of the smoke-machine and by moving from cave to cave, the men were soon keeping a regular line of burros busy carrying honey to the city and returning with empty cans. The bees worked so hard that the colonies had to be replaced every two weeks. Unfortunately winter put an end to this performance.
Honey caves have been the object of many expeditions, Parks concludes. Such quests for hidden sweets were often broached by country-boys, generally without definite plan or reliable information, except that someone had told of a bee cave somewhere, and they were determined to get the honey. The stories that have appeared in the papers are among the most marvelous pieces of misinformation ever read. It is to be said in defense of the credulity of these seekers after the rumored treasure houses that there are holes in the rocks, and crevices in the bluffs, where honey bees have lived for years and each year a certain amount of honey and wax is secured from such locations.
John Taylor Allen alludes to the affluence of honey in the State of Texas: "The wonderful tales told of honey and the honey bee may seem exaggerated but no tale can exaggerate the abundance of honey that was to be found right here in Texas in the early days. What sweet, happy days we had cutting bee trees and eating the rich wild honey spread over' our buttered biscuits, . . . We had a bountiful supply the whole year around—combed honey, strained honey and candied honey."
Wild bee cave tales are very much in vogue in Texas. Dr. Phillips of Cornell related a story about a man who, some years ago, came North from Texas with a most impressive story connected with huge accumulations of honey—which our man firmly believed—and who used all his efforts to interest prominent bee-keepers in the promotion of a scheme. Everybody realized how silly his project was but luckily no one told him. Finally they brought him to the meeting of the National Beekeepers' Association in Indianapolis, where, during the evening banquet, after he had told his tale, a company was organized, with a $2,000,000 capital for the promotion of his project. Dr. Phillips was elected. Secretary of the Company at some astounding salary. A well-known beekeeper was chosen as the "Chief Dronekiller" at a yearly salary of $ 20,000, an important position because the worker bees are very irritable during the period when they kill the drones. All the details were attended to: how to remove the honey and wax by elaborate machinery, and how to transport the honey through glass-lined pipes to San Antonio. It was the wildest hoax. All attending the banquet were holding their sides from laughter without the victim discovering that they were having a grand time at his expense. At the end of the evening it fell to Dr. Phillips' lot to perform a most perplexing and painful duty, that of telling the victim that the entire scheme was only a huge joke.
In American folklore, young as it is, we find many tales which reflect on honey. H. B. Parks, in "The Lost Honey Mines in Texas", Southwest Review, (1930. 16.) remarks: "The best place and time to hear honey-cave stories is some bee-yard in the chaparral of Southwest Texas, when the extracting crew is resting around the campfire after a hard day's work. From the prevalence and absurdity of the legends, however, it is safe to infer that they are of long standing."
"The tales of bee-caves have much in common with stories about lost mines," Parks continues. . . . The mouths of the caves were supposed to be guarded by huge rattlesnakes, vicious bats, scorpions; occasionally, by ghosts. Usually, as the story goes, some surveyor entered the cave about thirty years ago and reported vast rooms filled with honey in pure white combs. Often a well-driller in the vicinity has passed, they say, through just thirty feet of honey and wax. And someone can always (for a certain consideration and not otherwise) show you the location of the cave.
The Story of Bee Mountain, as described by Parks, is very popular. It was disclosed to two boys by a cowpuncher who was well acquainted with the mountain and who had procured plenty of honey there himself. According to the informant, this mountain was a hollow hill, conical in shape and several thousand feet in height. On one side was an opening; and if the searchers could have used sulphur fumes, sufficiently strong to stupefy the bees, they might have entered the interior of the mountain, where hundreds and thousands of pounds of honey were suspended from the roof. There was also a rumor afloat that some boys had attempted to invade it, but they were frightened away by Cherokee Indians.
Another story, according to Parks, was told by a man who could remember that during his early childhood Indians would come after every wet spring to obtain honey from bees living in colonies, attached to the undersurface of a wide projecting rock at the top of a nearby cliff, some seventy feet above the bed of a river. The Indians reached the honey by splicing together mesquite poles. Then some light Indian would climb the pole and the others would move it from place to place, while the Indian aloft lowered the honeycombs by means of a rope and a grass sack. Once a group of hostile Indians came to gather some honey, and after they had obtained all they desired, turned on the white settlers and killed many of them. Mr. Parks visited Bee Mountain several years ago, and counted some three hundred colonies of bees attached to an overhanging rock. At the base of the bluff were the remains of hundreds of pieces of mesquite poles, formerly parts of ladders used probably by the Indians.
`Bee Cave up Blanco" seems to be famous everywhere except along the Blanco River. An old hunter said that one man in his party had climbed to the mouth of a great cave along the banks of the river. On arriving at the opening, he was completely covered by thousands of bees and he was saved from being stung to death only by his heavy clothing. He was able to drive the bees from his eyes just long enough to obtain a glimpse of the cave, where he beheld a solid wall of white honeycombs. The man later re-turned with a companion, and with the aid of smoke and the light of torches the hunters were enabled to enter this gigantic hive. They were approaching beautiful sheets of honeycombs when a warning note caused them to look to the floor of the cave. Horrified, they discovered that they were standing at the edge of what appeared to be a solid mass of wriggling, twisting rattlesnakes. The hunters, by quick movement, regained the entrance in safety.
Another famous bee cave, Parks continues, is reported to be located very close to the City of San Marcos, in the side of a cliff. The entire rock composing the bluff is full of holes and this is the home, not only of an immense colony of bees, but also of many snakes, rattlesnakes being predominant. According to the story, a group of men tried to open a hole in the side of this bluff. The leader said that he had been assured that there were hundreds of pounds of honey and beeswax in the cave, and he felt certain that this treasure could be obtained with the aid of a patented smoke gun which he possessed. Carrying the famous smoke gun and a lantern, one of the members explored the cave to a depth of several thousands of feet. He returned with the report that enormous amounts of honey and wax were almost at their finger tips. The exploring company tried to enlarge the opening, but as soon as they commenced to pound on the rock, snakes began to issue from every little hole in the face of the bluff, and, while no one was hurt, the sight was so terrible that the men fled and no amount of hidden treasure could induce them to return.
The bee cave in the Davis Mountains is another place that can be "easily" approached. The opening is as large as the doorway of an immense cathedral. With proper protection a person can enter the cave and is at once astonished by the curtainlike sheets of honeycomb which hang from the ceiling. As far as one penetrates into the cave this white honeycomb extends, one sheet right after another. The terrible thing about the cave, however, is super-natural. The first thing that attracts the attention of the explorer is the fact that he is standing in the midst of dozens of human skeletons. If he proceeds, he feels a sudden chill in the atmosphere and something seems to take hold of him in such a way that he cannot move farther inward, although he can see nothing to stop him. If the adventurer does not heed the warning and tries to go still farther, he is crushed by an unknown force and falls dead to the floor. Should his companions attempt to remove the body, they, too, are stricken with death and add to this pile of grim reminders of the force which protects the honey bees of the Davis Mountains. (All these stories are somewhat reminiscent of the legend about the four Greeks, who tried to plunder the grotto of Zeus.)
The cave up the Nueces is thought to be located in the face of a cliff some thousand feet in height. During the spring season, to one standing on the top of the bluff, the bees going and coming from the mouth of the cave resemble a great stream of smoke; and the hum of their wings is so loud that the roar can be heard for miles. According to the story, thirty years ago a surveyor discovered a second entrance and, making a torch of his coat, went into the cave, protected by the smoke of the burning garment. He passed through room after room filled with long white sheets of purest guajillo honey, and estimated that the cave contained several million pounds. Some of the combs were at least fifty feet from top to bottom. Before the surveyor had time to make the proper preparations to remove the honey, he fell sick and died. Just before his death, he called a doctor and gave him a map showing the entrance to the bee cave. A story was current in San Antonio some five or six years ago that this map was on sale for $500. A second version is that a ranchman living near this canyon had a well drained for water. Some fifty feet down, the drill-bit entered a cavity, and when a sand bucket was substituted for the rock-bit, honey and beeswax were brought up in great quantities. The cavity was thirty feet from top to bottom.
Another story, Parks relates, is that of an old beekeeper and former cowboy, "Jones," who said that up the Nueces canyon the whole wall was filled with bees. With a companion, he planned to take advantage of the bees, and to become rich by selling honey. "Jones" and his friend bought a blacksmith's bellows and made a machine, which they mounted on a sled, for blowing sulphur fumes. A honey extractor was placed on another sled. The men then bought two colonies of bees and several burros. When the cave-bees had finished gathering the spring crop of honey, "Jones" and a curious caravan set out for the canyon. At the mouth of the canyon, the party made camp. The next day they pushed the smoke engine as far as the first bee cave, fired it up, and pumped the fumes into the skeleton rock that guarded the honey. After a hard day's work, the bees in this cave were all killed. That night, two colonies of bees in hives were placed in front of the cave. The next day these hive-bees worked overtime, stealing the honey from the cave. In the evening, "Jones" and his companion, as the story goes, extracted three hundred pounds of honey which they had secured with the aid of these two colonies. Elated by the success of the scheme, they sent for more colonies. By the use of the smoke-machine and by moving from cave to cave, the men were soon keeping a regular line of burros busy carrying honey to the city and returning with empty cans. The bees worked so hard that the colonies had to be replaced every two weeks. Unfortunately winter put an end to this performance.
Honey caves have been the object of many expeditions, Parks concludes. Such quests for hidden sweets were often broached by country-boys, generally without definite plan or reliable information, except that someone had told of a bee cave somewhere, and they were determined to get the honey. The stories that have appeared in the papers are among the most marvelous pieces of misinformation ever read. It is to be said in defense of the credulity of these seekers after the rumored treasure houses that there are holes in the rocks, and crevices in the bluffs, where honey bees have lived for years and each year a certain amount of honey and wax is secured from such locations.
John Taylor Allen alludes to the affluence of honey in the State of Texas: "The wonderful tales told of honey and the honey bee may seem exaggerated but no tale can exaggerate the abundance of honey that was to be found right here in Texas in the early days. What sweet, happy days we had cutting bee trees and eating the rich wild honey spread over' our buttered biscuits, . . . We had a bountiful supply the whole year around—combed honey, strained honey and candied honey."
Wild bee cave tales are very much in vogue in Texas. Dr. Phillips of Cornell related a story about a man who, some years ago, came North from Texas with a most impressive story connected with huge accumulations of honey—which our man firmly believed—and who used all his efforts to interest prominent bee-keepers in the promotion of a scheme. Everybody realized how silly his project was but luckily no one told him. Finally they brought him to the meeting of the National Beekeepers' Association in Indianapolis, where, during the evening banquet, after he had told his tale, a company was organized, with a $2,000,000 capital for the promotion of his project. Dr. Phillips was elected. Secretary of the Company at some astounding salary. A well-known beekeeper was chosen as the "Chief Dronekiller" at a yearly salary of $ 20,000, an important position because the worker bees are very irritable during the period when they kill the drones. All the details were attended to: how to remove the honey and wax by elaborate machinery, and how to transport the honey through glass-lined pipes to San Antonio. It was the wildest hoax. All attending the banquet were holding their sides from laughter without the victim discovering that they were having a grand time at his expense. At the end of the evening it fell to Dr. Phillips' lot to perform a most perplexing and painful duty, that of telling the victim that the entire scheme was only a huge joke.
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