oney, especially if old, will cause indigestion when eaten by some
persons, through an excessive production of lactic acid in the
stomach; and a superficial ulceration of the mouth and tongue,
resembling thrush, will ensue; it being at the same time a known
popular fact, that Honey by itself, or when mixed with powdered
borax (which is alkaline) will speedily cure a similar sore state
within the mouth arising through deranged health.

As long ago as when Soranus lived, the contemporary of Galen (160
A.D.) Honey was declared to be "an easy remedy for the thrush of
children," but he gravely attributed its virtues in this respect to the
circumstance that bees collected the Honey from flowers growing
over the tomb of Hippocrates, in the vale of Tempe.

The sting venom of bees has been found helpful for relieving
rheumatic gout in the hands, and elsewhere through toxicating the
tender and swollen limbs by means of lively bees placed over the
parts in an inverted tumbler, and then irritating the insects so as to
make them sting. A custom prevails in Malta of inoculation by
frequent bee stinging, so as to impart at length a protective
immunity against rheumatism, this being confirmatory of the fact
known to beekeepers elsewhere, that after exposure to attacks from
bees, often repeated [262] throughout a length of time, most persons
will acquire a convenient freedom from all future disagreeable
effects. An Austrian physician has based on these methods an
infallible cure for acute rheumatism.

In Shakespeare's _Twelfth Night_, Sir Toby Belch asks to have a
"song for sixpence," the third verse of which has been thought to
run thus:--

"The King was in his counting house
Counting out his money,
The Queen was in the parlour
Eating bread and Honey."

"Mel mandit, panemque, morans regina culina,
Dulcia plebeia non comedenda nuru."

A plain cake, currant or seed, made with Honey in place of sugar is
a pleasant addition to the tea-table and a capital preventive of
constipation.

"All kinds of precious stones cast into Honey become more brilliant
thereby," says St. Francis de Sales in _The Devout Life_, 1708,
"and all persons become more acceptable when they join devotion
to their graces."

HOP.

The Hop (_Humulus lupulus_) belongs to the Nettle tribe (_Cannabineoe_)
of plants, and grows wild in our English hedges and copses; but
then it bears only male flowers. When cultivated it produces
the