. British bee journal & bee-keepers adviser. Bees. Oct. 19, 1916.] THE BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 325. ARE BEE-KEEPERS IMMUNE TO ZYMOTIC DISEASES? In the British Bee Journal for Octo- ber 28, 1915, we published a letter from Mr. A. E. Staley, in which he remarked that " numibers of bee-keepers handle their bees freely, with little or no protection, and get stung so frequently that they be- come, immune : that is, they feel the stings hardly at all, and the poison does not make their flesh swell. We may call these immunes. Now I have noticed that no immune person has ever suffered from cance
. British bee journal & bee-keepers adviser. Bees. Oct. 19, 1916.] THE BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 325. ARE BEE-KEEPERS IMMUNE TO ZYMOTIC DISEASES? In the British Bee Journal for Octo- ber 28, 1915, we published a letter from Mr. A. E. Staley, in which he remarked that " numibers of bee-keepers handle their bees freely, with little or no protection, and get stung so frequently that they be- come, immune : that is, they feel the stings hardly at all, and the poison does not make their flesh swell. We may call these immunes. Now I have noticed that no immune person has ever suffered from cancer, consumption, neuritis, or any form of zymotic disease. I have made many inquiries, and have never been able to find a single case of an immune so suffering. Bee poison consists chiefly of formic acid, one of the strongest anti. septics known, with slight traces of malic and other acids. The natural inference is that the formic acid purifies the blood from noxious germs. Consequently the immunes do not suffer from zymotic diseases; and their blood being healthy their organs remain healthy, and they die only by the natural decay of old age or by accident. The suggestion and in- ference is that zymotic diseases could be cured or warded off by injections of an antiseptic on the basis of bee ; We have this week received a further letter on this matter from Mr. Staley, in which he says he has been asked by the Royal Faculty of Medicine to make further inquiries into the subject. As he will probably be engaged on war work he has asked us to help him. In the course of his letter he says : " I have been much interested to learn that French doctors send their consumptives to keep bees, and this practice supports my theory. It is, you understand, an inquiry as to health of immune bee-keepers— immune to the poison—and not an inquiry as to the health of persons occasionally stung, or who keep bees and protect them- selves against ; The subject is a most i
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