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          APIS MELLIFICA;

                OR,

    THE POISON OF THE HONEY-BEE,

 Considered as a Therapeutic Agent.


        BY C. W. WOLF, M.D.,

  Ex-District Physician in Berlin.


           PHILADELPHIA:
     PUBLISHED AND FOR SALE BY
  WILLIAM RADDE, 635 ARCH STREET.
               1858.




Transcriber's Note:

    Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
    Inconsistent hyphenation has been standardised, whilst variant and
    archaic spellings remain as printed. The oe ligature is represented
    by [oe].




PREFACE.


Every physician who has spent years of an active life in prescribing for
large numbers of patients, is morally bound to publish his experience to
the world, provided he is satisfied, in his interior conscience, that
such a publication might be useful to the general interests of humanity.

In offering the following essay to my readers, I simply desire to fulfil
an obligation recognised as valid by the inner sense. This essay
contains every thing that an experience of forty years in the
conscientious and philanthropic exercise of my profession has sanctioned
and confirmed as truth. Nor have I adopted a single fact, suggested by
my own observation, as correct, without contrasting it with the most
approved records of medicine. To every true friend of man, and more
particularly to every physician who considers the business of healing
disease as the highest office of medical art, I offer this essay for
further trial and examination. May the statements expressed in it either
be confirmed or else corrected and improved by those who excel in more
thorough knowledge and ability.

                                                           THE AUTHOR.

_Berlin, Oct., 1857._




APIS MELLIFICA.

    "The bee helps to heal all thy internal and external maladies, and
    is the best little friend whom man possesses in this world."--More
    in Cotton's _Book of the Bee_, p. 138.


Since Hahnemann's successful attempt to develop the medicinal nature of
Aconite, no other discovery has been made in the domain of practical
medicine, as comprehensive and universally useful as the discovery of
the medicinal virtues of the poison of the bee. It is of the utmost
importance to the interests of humanity to become as intimately
acquainted with the efficacy of this poison as possible. It is the
object of these papers to contribute my mite to this work.

As soon as Dr. Hering had published the provings of the bee poison, in
his "American Provings," I at once submitted them to the test of
experience in an extensive practice. I prepared the drug which I used
for this purpose, by pouring half an ounce of alcohol on five living
bees, and shaking them during the space of eight days, three times
a-day, with one hundred vigorous strokes of the arm. From this
preparation, which I used as the mother-tincture, I obtained
attenuations up to the thirties centesimal scale. So far, the effects
which I have obtained with this preparation, have been uniformly
satisfactory. It has seemed to me that the lower potencies lose in power
as they are kept for a longer period; hence, I consider it safer to
prepare them fresh every year. As a general rule, I have found either
the third or the thirtieth potency, sufficient.

Day after day I have obtained more satisfactory results, and now I look
upon Apis mellifica as the greatest polychrest, next to Aconite, which
we possess.

The introduction of this poison to the medical profession, will be
looked upon as the most brilliant merit of one of the most deserving
apostles of hom[oe]opathy, and will secure immortality to the honored
name of Constantine Hering. The following statements will show how far
this faith of a grateful heart is founded upon facts:

_Apis mellifica is the most satisfactory remedy for acute hydrocephalus
of children._

The more acute and dangerous the attack, the more readily will it yield
to the action of Apis. Sudden convulsions, followed by general fever,
loss of consciousness, delirium, sopor while the child is lying in bed,
interrupted more or less by sudden cries; boring of the head into the
pillow, with copious sweat about the head, having the odor of musk;
inability to hold the head erect; squinting of one or both eyes;
dilatation of the pupils; gritting of the teeth; protrusion of the
tongue; desire to vomit; nausea, retching and vomiting; collapse of the
abdominal walls; scanty urine, which is sometimes milky; costiveness;
trembling of the limbs; occasional twitching of the limbs on one side of
the body, and apparent paralysis of those of the other side; painful
turning inwards of the big toes, extorting cries from the patient;
accelerated pulse, which soon becomes slower, irregular, intermittent
and rather hard; these symptoms inform us that life is in danger, the
more so the more numerous they are grouped together.

In comparing with these symptoms the following