An abstract of this important paper[D] I shall communicate for the information of my readers.
[D] An abstract of the paper was published in the Lancet and several other journals.
"The great objects which recommend Mr. Nutt's plan, consist in the great improvement in quality and augmentation of honey produced, and that without destroying the Bees—a discovery equally creditable to Mr. Nutt, as a man of benevolent mind, and to his industry and indefatigable research.
"The cultivation of Honey-bees is of remote antiquity. The Bee was regarded as the emblem of royalty with the ancient Egyptians, and Bees have been held in the highest esteem by all nations, whether barbarous or civilized; yet the united experience of ancients and moderns has never hitherto led to the happy results, which, by a connected series of experiments, patient research, and logical induction, have in twelve years been achieved by Mr. Nutt. In the course of his observation he saw, not only that the destruction of the Bees was barbarous in the extreme, but that this cruelty was equally subversive of the crops of honey; his inquiries were hence directed to find how this destructive system could be exchanged for a conservative one. In this he has completely succeeded, and by preserving the Bees has been enabled to increase their produce many-fold, and that too, in a far more salutary and improved quality. It is equal even to the samples usually obtained from young hives called virgin honey, which is scarce, dear, and seldom to be had genuine.
"Owing to the want of knowledge on the subject, the consequent impurities, and the great price of foreign honey, together with the adulterations practised, the use of this valuable article has been nearly abandoned in this country, whether as an article of the materia medica or of domestic economy; and for the reasons just stated, the preparations of honey have even been expunged from the Edinburgh Pharmacopeia. From the recent improvement, however, by the gentleman just mentioned, we have reason to hope its use will be restored in a condition vastly improved, and that at a great reduction in price, the facilities of production being greatly enhanced, and such as to render it in time available to all classes of society.
"Pure honey was justly considered by the ancients to possess the most valuable balsamic and pectoral properties—as a lenitive, ecoprotic, and detergent; and it is well-known to dissolve viscid phlegm and promote expectoration. As a medium for other remedies, it is in its pure state far superior to sirups, as being less liable to run into the acetous fermentation. It appears that honey procured on Mr. Nutt's plan is not excelled by the finest and most costly samples from the continent, as that of Minorca, Narbonne, or Montpelier. The various impurities and extraneous matter usually contained in honey, cause it in many cases to produce griping pains, or uneasy sensations in the stomach and bowels; this however has no such effect, unless it be taken to an imprudent extent.
"Pure honey, though in its ultimate elements similar to refined sugar, yet differs considerably in its physiological effects on the body, being a lenitive, aperient or gentle laxative, and hence incomparably more beneficial in costive habits. It has in a dietetic or medicinal point of view been recommended in gravel or calculous complaints; of this however I have no knowledge, but its utility in asthma I have experienced in my own person as well as in others;—as also as an efficacious remedy in hooping cough, taken with antimonial wine, camphor, arid opium. For sedentary persons and those troubled with constipation of the bowels, there is no dietetic or medicinal substance so useful as pure honey, whether taken in drink or with bread and butter, &c. It is well-known as a detergent of foul sores, and I have often found it to succeed in healing deep-seated sinuous or fistulous ulcers, and thus to obviate the necessity of surgical operations.
"In South America and amongst the Spaniards, honey is considered as one of the best detergents for sloughing sores and foul ulcerations; so it was formerly in Europe. Its uses in a surgical point of view have in this country long been lost sight of. Its detergent power is such, that it was formerly denominated a vegetable soap, as we may see in the older writers. It is still made the basis of cosmetics, and this empirical practice goes to prove its efficacy—to those at least who have experienced its effects in cleansing and healing sinuous ulcers, its stimulating property producing withal the sanitary adhesive inflammation. A species of wine made from honey, called metheglin and mead—the mulsum of the ancients—was formerly much in use in this country, and most deservedly so from its pleasant taste and salutary properties. By the perfection of honey, this may now be obtained no doubt of equal excellence here, and a rich mellifluous species of wine of the most wholesome kind will be acquired, and open a new source of national industry.
"It has been said, that where the air is clear and hot, honey is better than where it is variable and cold, and this seems to have served as an apology for the inferiority of much of the honey contained in this country. It is a position, which I am persuaded is not well founded; for the honey in hot climates, notwithstanding the fragrance of the flowers, is mostly inferior to the commonest samples produced here. This inferiority, however, may be entirely owing to the difference in the Bees—for I speak here of the wild or native honey—and it is probable that the apis mellifica might, in South America, on Mr. Nutt's plan, produce the best of honey, and in very great abundance, because it would there work all the year, and the product therefore would be greatly increased.