Dysentery has also been said to be produced by a surfeit of vernal honey, simply as such, from whatever flowers derived: were this true it would occur in all neighbourhoods. With respect to its proceeding from their eating wax, I am decidedly of opinion that wax never constitutes any part of their food, under any circumstances; not a tittle of evidence can be adduced in support of such an assertion. Wax is an excrementitious matter, secreted among the abdominal folds of the bees for the sole purpose of constructing the honey and brood-combs: the scraps of wax that are observed in winter and spring upon the hive floors, and which, to the minds of common observers, convey the idea that they are crumbs caused by the bees consuming the wax for food, are produced by their nibbling the lids of the cells to uncover the honey. If +Madame Vicat's+ _theory_ were correct, what would become of all the bees in Siberia and other northern regions? Huish says he never found honey in this country to candy in the combs, but adds that Bonner assured him that _he_ had experienced it. _Vide_ chapter on Honey. +Kirby+ and +Spence+ have given it as their opinion, that dysentery arises from the bees having an insufficiency of pollen or bee-bread to eat with their honey. We have no evidence that pollen constitutes any part of the food of _adult_ bees; and if it did, they have generally opportunities of storing it very abundantly, in the autumn, as well as in the spring: and such is the provident industry of bees, that a considerable surplus is always found in every stock-hive. +Wildman+ and +Huish+ recommend salt for preserving the health of bees; and their frequenting stable drains and other receptacles of urine gives countenance to this recommendation, as it seems probable that the saline matter contained in those fluids attracts the bees, their desire for it overcoming that repugnance to offensive odours which would otherwise occasion them to avoid such places. Even fresh urine has been recommended by +Ranconi+, an _Italian_ author, in case the bees should be attacked by dysentery;--in all probability a weak solution of salt would be more acceptable and equally efficacious. I always introduce a small portion of it into the syrup with which I feed my bees. +Keys+ says that they are not fond of salt. _Vide_ Page 186. I will close this chapter on the Diseases of Bees with an extract from Nicholson's Journal, vol. xxiii. p. 234: Scientific Intelligence.