--_A. Goupil._
* * * * *
THE DOUBLE ROLE OF THE STING OF THE HONEY BEE.
[Footnote: Translated from an article entitled "Ueber eine doppelrolle
des stachels der honigbienen" in _Deutschamerikanische Apotheker
Zeitung_, 15 Jan., 1885, Jahrg. 5, p. 664; there reprinted from _Ind.
Blatter_.]
Very important and highly interesting discoveries have recently been
made in regard to a double role played by the sting of the honey bee.
These discoveries explain some hitherto inexplicable phenomena in the
domestic economy of the ants. It is already known that the honey of our
honey bees, when mixed with a tincture of litmus, shows a distinct red
color, or, in other words, has an acid reaction. It manifests this
peculiarity because of the volatile formic acid which it contains. This
admixed acid confers upon crude honey its preservative power. Honey
which is purified by treatment with water under heat, or the so-called
honey-sirup, spoils sooner, because the formic acid is volatilized. The
honey of vicious swarms of bees is characterized by a tart taste and a
pungent odor. This effect is produced by the formic acid, which is
present in excess in the honey. Hitherto it has been entirely unknown in
what way the substratum of this peculiarity of honey, the formic acid in
the honey, could enter into this vomit from the honey stomach of the
workers.
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