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To Test the Purity of Honey

Honey is frequently adulterated with molasses, potato-sugar syrup, starch, wheat flower, and water. The molasses may be detected by the color and odor; the potato-sugar syrup, by boiling a sample of the honey for a short time in water containing 2 or 3 per cent. of caustic potassa; if the liquid remains colorless it is pure; but if it turns brown, more or less, it is adulterated according to the quantity of syrup present. The starch, by the honey not forming a nearly clear solution with cold water, and striking a blue color with iodine.

When it contains wheat flour and is heated, it at first liquefies, but on cooling it becomes solid and tough. Water is added to honey to increase its bulk. Its presence may be suspected from the greater thinness of the liquid. B ees' Wax. forms the cells of bees; obtained by melting the comb in water after the honey has been removed, straining the liquid mass, remelting the defecated portion, and casting into cakes. Bees' wax, when pure, has neither taste nor smell; it melts at about 157° Fahr., and is of a specific gravity of .966. It burns without smoke or disagreeable odor. It is insoluble in water, but soluble in all proportions in the fixed and volatile oils, bisulphide of carbon, and benzine. Its complete solution in these substances demonstrates its freedom from fecula, sulphur, sawdust, or bone dust, which have been found in the wax of commerce, sometimes amounting to 60 per cent. of the whole weight. The abundance and low BEES' WAX. price of paraffine have made this substance one of the principal articles used in the falsification of wax, and perhaps of all others it is the least objectionable, being without marked physiological effect upon the system.