Honey for health and eyes

HONEY has a distinct bactericidal power which is mainly due to its hygroscopic property. All living organisms re-quire a certain amount of moisture to maintain their lives. When bacteria come in contact with honey they are deprived of the vital moisture and perish. The acid reaction of honey also renders it an unfavorable medium for the bacteria to grow in. Most micro-organisms which affect the human body are destroyed in honey.

Honey applied to ulcerated surfaces has a unique function. Soon after its application a profuse and intense centrifugal flow of lymph is noticeable and the entire torpid surface of the wound becomes soaked in fluid. This leucocytic lymph collection which honey produces has not only a bactericidal power but the rinsing function of the free-flowing liquid will greatly contribute to the cleansing of the wounds and will stimulate and promote granulation and healing. The ancient Greeks often refer to "epomphalia", a navel ointment made from honey for the newborn. Old mead, which is almost as extinct today as the dodo, was also used as an antiseptic lotion.

The external application of honey has an age-old history. The ancient Egyptians used it as a surgical dressing. The Papyrus Ebers recommended that wounds be covered for four days with linen dipped in honey and incense. They believed that cataracts yielded to treatments with honey. Honey dropped into the eyes was supposed to have cured inflammations and other ailments of the eyelids. To quote the amusing report of Vigerius: "I have cured a Horse stone blind with Honey and Salt and a little crock of a pot mixed. In less than three daies, it bath eaten off a tough filme, and the Horse never complained after." In the July, 1937 issue of the American Bee Journal (page 350) "A Subscriber" from New York State writes as follows: "I had a horse going blind with a white film over his eye which seemed to hurt. His eye was shut and watered. I dipped white honey into his eye with a feather for several nights. In a day or so the film was gone and the eye looked bright and good."

The Chinese and Hindus cover the entire bodies of their small-pox patients with honey to hasten the termination of the disease and also to prevent the formation of scars. Galen thought that "Hony warmes and cleares Wounds and Ulcers, attenuates and discusseth excrescencies in any part of the body." The Talmud recommended honey for ulcerated wounds, especially for extensive sores of animals. Ceromel, made with one part of wax and four parts of honey, is popular in the tropics for ulcers because it never becomes rancid.

During the Middle Ages honey was extensively used in the form of ointments and plasters for boils, wounds, burns and ulcers, plain or mixed with other ingredients. Charles Butler thought that honey "will knit together hollow and crooked ulcers and likewise close other disjoyned flesh." He highly praised the Unguentum Aegyptiacum which was made by boiling honey, vinegar and wintergreen. This plaster, according to Butler, would "open, clean, dry and digest all inflammations and resist putrefaction." Rectal suppositories contained honey and wax. Galen's honey and Oil Enema was popular for centuries.

Richard Remnant (The History of Bees, London, 1637) had implicit faith in "admirable baths made of honey which are excel-lent for Aches and strong Itches." A friend of his had "a foul itch that he was like a Leper." He cured him in the following manner: He used an empty Wine cask, called a Pipe, and "took out one head" and made a liquor of water and honey, making it pretty strong with honey and "heated it as hot as he could endure to stand in it," and poured it into the Pipe and "caused him to stand in it up to his neck a pretty while." This he did "three days, one after another, and he recovered as clear as ever." He had a like experience with "divers Aches." "If it be renewed every day with a little honey, it will be better."

The rural populations of the European continent, especially that of the Slavic countries, used honey for all kinds of wounds and inflammations. "Honey ointment", consisting of equal portions of honey and white flour, well mixed with a little water, had a wide usage. A good ointment should be more solidified than too liquid. Honey and burnt alum was another popular combination. In croupous diphtheria it was the accepted method of mothers to grip with their fingers a chunk of honey and vigorously rub, as far as they could reach, the throat and air passages of the patients. A honey poultice was also applied around the neck. Several drops of warm honey in the ear was considered an excellent remedy for pain, inflammation and ringing of the ear. Galen remarked: "Hony infused warme by itself wonderfully helps exulcerated ears, especially if they cast forth ill flavours, as also their singings and inflammations." Marcellus Empyricus suggested: "Honey, Butter and Oyle of Roses, of each a like quantity, warme, helps the paine of the ears, dulness of the sight and the white spots in the eyes."

The writer learned through personal communication that honey is still used for trachoma in the form of eyedrops. A Canadian mother related to him that two of her daughters contracted sore eyes while attending school, where there was an epidemic at the time. They were cured in two or three days by dropping honey into their eyes. It took two and three weeks for the other children in the school to get rid of the same trouble. Cataracts of the eyes were reported to have been cured by the same method, drop-ping honey into the eyes three times daily.

Our good friend, the famous globe-trotter Dr. W. E. Aughinbaugh, described an operation he witnessed in Panama, during the construction of the canal. A native Indian surgeon of considerable repute performed a disarticulation of the hip joint. He smoked cigarettes incessantly during the operation, laid them down occasionally, picking them up again with his bloody fingers. After the stump was sutured, the surgeon took from a large pail several handfuls of honey, which he smeared over the wound, covering it subsequently with gauze. He assured Dr. Aughinbaugh that he had never had an infection when he applied a layer of honey over the wound. Dr. Aughinbaugh has seen the natives of the Amazon region "suture" extensive injuries by letting beetles unite the margins of wounds with their robust mandibles. After the heads of the insects were severed, the mandibles remained closed and the wounds were covered with honey mixed with liquid wax. The results were excellent.

It is singular that, though honey was used for thousands of years for treatment of wounds and skin troubles, our modern medical literature ignores the subject. Lately, it seems, honey is gradually regaining its age-old repute and lost popularity. Dr. Zaiss, of Heidelberg, considers honey in the treatment of wounds superior to all other ointments. He has treated several thousand cases of severe infections with honey and could not report a single failure. Dr. Zaiss prefers honey even to tincture of iodine. He dresses the wounds with strips of gauze dipped in honey, and finds the wounds perfectly clean in 24 hours. The sloughs, even deep ones, usually adhere to the dressing material. Dr. Zaiss states that the application causes, at first, a transient smarting but the pain is soon relieved and a cooling sensation supervenes. The healing is remarkably rapid. He suggests a daily change of dressing.

The Germans were always firm believers in the curative power of honey, both internally and externally, as a surgical dressing. It is interesting that honey is now combined in Germany with an-other old popular remedy; namely, cod-liver oil. Pliny highly praised cod-liver oil as a wound dressing (Hist. Nat. 31:27). The Eskimos, Laplanders and the natives of Greenland use cod-liver oil even these days for the dressing of wounds. German surgeons, Zaiss, Sack, Lucke, Buchheister, Löhr, Gundel, Blattner and others, published recently in the medical journals miraculotis results which they obtained through the use of a cod-liver oil ointment called Desitin-Honey salve. Infected wounds, ulcerations, burns, fistulas, boils, carbuncles, felons, etc., are reported to heal in the shortest time. The ointment is supposed to check inflammation, stimulate granulation and remove deep necrotic tissues. Subjectively the ointment is very well tolerated because it alleviates pain and eases tension. The change of dressings is not painful because in twenty-four hours the wound is soaked in a rich exudate of lymph which prevents adherence of the dressing material to the wound and is easily removed. The odor of the ointment is rather pleasant, without a corrigent. It is difficult to say whether the honey or the cod-liver oil is the more helpful ingredient but it seems that it is a fortunate combination. The surgeons advise that, though its function is not scientifically proven and therefore justified, these facts should not interfere with its use. In skin diseases, even in psoriasis, the results obtained were excellent. For frostbites on ears, fingers and toes there is nothing which will take out sooner the frost and swelling than when these parts are wrapped in honey. Verrucae (warts) were reported to have been removed by the overnight application of a honey poultice.

Recently Dr. Charles Brunnich, a surgeon of Switzerland, joined the ranks of those who advocate honey for surgical dressings, especially for contused and badly slashed septic wounds. He quotes the case of a man whose finger was smashed in a grinding machine. The bone of the terminal phalanx of the finger was broken and hung on a skin flap. After wrapping the extremity in honey the finger grew on and rapidly healed. Another man had, in succession, two large carbuncles on the back. While the first carbuncle was operated on by a surgeon and left a deep ugly scar, the second was treated only with honey. The cores rapidly eliminated and the wound left only an insignificant scar.

In the "Alpenlindische Bienenzeitung" (February, 1935) we find the following report from a man: "In the winter of 1933 I heated a boiler of about thirty-five gallons of water. When I opened the cover, it flew with great force against the ceiling. The vapor and hot water poured forth over my unprotected head, over my hands and feet. Some minutes afterward I had violent pains and I believe I would have gone mad if my wife and my daughter had not helped me immediately. They took large pieces of linen, daubed them thickly with honey and put them on my head, neck, hands and feet. Almost instantly the pain ceased. I slept well all night and did not lose a single hair on my head. When the physician came he shook his head and said: `How can such a thing be possible?