CHAPTER X THE PHYSICIAN IN THE HIVE

 It was a strange procession coming up the red-tiled path of the bee garden.  The bee-master led the way in his Sunday clothes, followed by a gorgeous footman, powdered and cockaded, who carried an armful of wraps and cushions.  Behind him walked two more, supporting between them a kind of carrying-chair, in which sat a florid old gentleman in a Scotch¹ plaid shawl; and behind these again strode a silk-hatted, black-frocked man carefully regulating the progress of the cavalcade².  Through the rain of autumn leaves, on the brisk October morning, I could see, afar off, a carriage waiting by the lane-side; a big old-fashioned family vehicle, with cockaded servants, a pair of champing greys, and a glitter of gold and scarlet³ on the panel, where the sunbeams struck on an elaborate coat-of-arms.

 

The whole procession made for the extracting-house, and all work stopped at its approach.  The great centrifugal machine ceased its humming.  The doors of the packing-room were closed, shutting as the din⁴ of saw and hammer.  Over the stone floor in front of the furnace—where a big caldron of metheglin was simmering—a carpet was hastily unrolled, and a comfortable couch brought out and set close to the cheery blaze.

 

And now the strangest part of the proceedings⁵ commenced.  The old gentleman was brought in, partially⁶ disrobed, and transferred to the couch by the fireside.  He seemed in great trepidation⁷ about something.  He kept his gold eyeglasses turned on the bee-master, watching him with a sort of terrified wonder, as the old bee-man produced a mysterious box, with a lid of perforated zinc⁸, and laid it on the table close by.  From my corner the whole scene was strongly reminiscent of the ogre’s kitchen in the fairy-tale; and the muffled⁹ sounds from the packing-room might have been the voice of the ogre himself, complaining at the lateness of his dinner.

 

Now, at a word from the black-coated man, the bee-master opened his box.  A loud angry buzzing uprose, and about a dozen bees escaped into the air, and flew straight for the window-glass.  The bee-master followed them, took one carefully by the wings, and brought it over to the old gentleman.  His apprehensions¹⁰ visibly redoubled.  The doctor seized him in an iron, professional grip.

 

“Just here, I think.  Close under the shoulder-blade.  Now, your lordship . . . ”

 

Viciously the infuriated bee struck home.  For eight or ten seconds she worked her wicked will on the patient.  Then, turning round and round, she at last drew out her sting, and darted¹¹ back to the window.

 

But the bee-master was ready with another of his living stilettos.  Half a dozen times the operation was repeated on various parts of the suffering patient’s body.  Then the old gentleman—who, by this time, had passed from whimpering through the various stages of growing indignation to sheer undisguised profanity—was restored to his apparel.  The procession was re-formed, and the bee-master conducted it to the waiting carriage, with the same ceremony as before.

 

As we stood looking after the retreating vehicle, the old bee-man entered into explanations.

 

“That,” said he, “is Lord H—, and he has been a martyr¹² to rheumatism¹³ these ten years back.  I could have cured him long ago if he had only come to me before, as I have done many a poor soul in these parts; but he, and those like him, are the last to hear of the physician in the hive.  He will begin to get better now, as you will see.  He is to be brought here every fortnight; but in a month or two he will not need the chair.  And before the winter is out he will walk again as well as the best of us.”

 

We went slowly back through the bee-farm.  The working-song of the bees seemed as loud as ever in the keen October sunshine.  But the steady deep note of summer was gone; and the peculiar¹⁴ bee-voice of autumn—shrill, anxious, almost vindictive—rang out on every side.

 

“Of course,” continued the bee-master, “there is nothing new in this treatment of rheumatism by bee-stings.  It is literally¹⁵ as old as the hills.  Every bee-keeper for the last two thousand years has known of it.  But it is as much as a preventive as a cure that the acid in a bee’s sting is valuable.  The rarest thing in the world is to find a bee-keeper suffering from rheumatism.  And if every one kept bees, and got stung occasionally, the doctors would soon have one ailment¹⁶ the less to trouble about.”

 

“But,” he went on, “there is something much pleasanter and more valuable to humanity, ill or well, to be got from the hives.  And that is the honey itself.  Honey is good for old and young.  If mothers were wise they would never give their children any other sweet food.  Pure ripe honey is sugar with the most difficult and most important part of digestion¹⁷ already accomplished¹⁸ by the bees.  Moreover, it is a safe and very gentle laxative.  And probably, before each comb-cell is sealed up, the bee injects a drop of acid from her sting.  Anyway, honey has a distinct aseptic property.  That is why it is so good for sore throats or chafed¹⁹ skins.”

 

We had got back to the extracting house, where the great caldron of metheglin was still bubbling over the fire.  The old bee-keeper relieved himself of his stiff Sunday coat, donned his white linen²⁰ overalls²¹, and fell to skimming the pot.

 

“There is another use,” said he, after a ruminative²² pause, “to which honey might be put, if only doctors could be induced to seek curative power in ancient homely²³ things, as they do with the latest new poisons from Germany.  That is in the treatment of obesity²⁴.  Fat people, who are ordered to give up sugar, ought to use honey instead.  In my time I have persuaded many a one to try it, and the result has always been the same—a steady reduction in weight, and better health all round.  Then, again, dyspeptic folk would find most of their troubles vanish if they substituted the already half-digested honey wherever ordinary sugar forms part of their diet.  And did you ever try honey to sweeten tea or coffee?  Of course, it must be pure, and without any strongly-marked flavour; but no one would ever return to sugar if once good honey had been tried in this way, or in any kind of cookery where sugar is used.”

 

The bee-master ran his fingers through his hair, of which he had a magnificent iron-grey crop.  The fingers were undeniably sticky; but it was an old habit of his, when in thoughtful mood, and the action seemed to remind him of something.  His eyes twinkled merrily.

 

“Now,” said he, “you are a writer for the papers, and you may therefore want to go into the hair-restoring business some day.  Well, here is a recipe for you.  It is nothing but honey and water, in equal parts, but it is highly recommended by all the ancient writers on beemanship.  Have I tried it?  Well, no; at least, not intentionally²⁵.  But in extracting honey it gets into most places, the hair not excepted.  At any rate, honey as a hair-restorer was one of the most famous nostrums²⁶ of the Middle Ages, and may return to popular favour even now.  However, here is something there can be no question about.”

 

He went to a cupboard, and brought out a jar full of a viscid yellow substance.

 

“This,” he said, “is an embrocation, and it is the finest thing I know for sprains²⁷ and bruises²⁸.  It is made of the wax from old combs, dissolved in turpentine, and if we got nothing else from the hives bee-keeping would yet be justified²⁹ as a humanitarian³⁰ calling.  Its virtues³¹ may be in the wax, or they may be due to the turpentine, but probably they lie in another direction altogether.  Bees collect a peculiar resinous³² matter from pine trees and elsewhere, with which they varnish³³ the whole surface of their combs, and this may be the real curative element in the stuff.”

 

Now, with a glance at the clock, the bee-master went to the open door and hailed his foreman in from his work about the garden.  Between them they lifted away the heavy caldron from the fire, and tilted³⁴ its steaming contents into a barrel close at hand.  The whole building filled at once with a sweet penetrating³⁵ odour, which might well have been the concentrated fragrance³⁶ of every summer flower on the countryside.

 

“But of all the good things given us by the wise physician of the hive,” quoth the old bee-keeper, enthusiastically, “there is nothing so good as well-brewed metheglin.  This is just as I have made it for forty years, and as my father made it long before that.  Between us we have been brewing³⁷ mead³⁸ for more than a century.  It is almost a lost art now; but here in Sussex there are still a few antiquated³⁹ folk who make it, and some, even, who remember the old methers—the ancient cups it used to be quaffed⁴⁰ from.  As an everyday drink for working-men, wholesome⁴¹, nourishing, cheering, there is nothing like it in or out of the Empire.”

1 scotch   

n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的

参考例句：

• Facts will eventually scotch these rumours.这种谣言在事实面前将不攻自破。
• Italy was full of fine views and virtually empty of Scotch whiskey.意大利多的是美景，真正缺的是苏格兰威士忌。

2 cavalcade   

n.车队等的行列

参考例句：

• A cavalcade processed through town.马车队列队从城里经过。
• The cavalcade drew together in silence.马队在静默中靠拢在一起。

3 scarlet   

n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的

参考例句：

• The scarlet leaves of the maples contrast well with the dark green of the pines.深红的枫叶和暗绿的松树形成了明显的对比。
• The glowing clouds are growing slowly pale,scarlet,bright red,and then light red.天空的霞光渐渐地淡下去了，深红的颜色变成了绯红，绯红又变为浅红。

4 din   

n.喧闹声，嘈杂声

参考例句：

• The bustle and din gradually faded to silence as night advanced.随着夜越来越深，喧闹声逐渐沉寂。
• They tried to make themselves heard over the din of the crowd.他们力图让自己的声音盖过人群的喧闹声。

5 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

6 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

7 trepidation   

n.惊恐，惶恐

参考例句：

• The men set off in fear and trepidation.这群人惊慌失措地出发了。
• The threat of an epidemic caused great alarm and trepidation.流行病猖獗因而人心惶惶。

8 zinc   

n.锌；vt.在...上镀锌

参考例句：

• Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc.黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。
• Zinc is used to protect other metals from corrosion.锌被用来保护其他金属不受腐蚀。

9 muffled   

adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己）

参考例句：

• muffled voices from the next room 从隔壁房间里传来的沉闷声音
• There was a muffled explosion somewhere on their right. 在他们的右面什么地方有一声沉闷的爆炸声。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 apprehensions   

疑惧

参考例句：

• He stood in a mixture of desire and apprehensions. 他怀着渴望和恐惧交加的心情伫立着。
• But subsequent cases have removed many of these apprehensions. 然而，随后的案例又消除了许多类似的忧虑。

11 darted   

v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔

参考例句：

• The lizard darted out its tongue at the insect. 蜥蜴伸出舌头去吃小昆虫。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The old man was displeased and darted an angry look at me. 老人不高兴了，瞪了我一眼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 martyr   

n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲

参考例句：

• The martyr laid down his life for the cause of national independence.这位烈士是为了民族独立的事业而献身的。
• The newspaper carried the martyr's photo framed in black.报上登载了框有黑边的烈士遗像。

13 rheumatism   

n.风湿病

参考例句：

• The damp weather plays the very devil with my rheumatism.潮湿的天气加重了我的风湿病。
• The hot weather gave the old man a truce from rheumatism.热天使这位老人暂时免受风湿病之苦。

14 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

15 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

16 ailment   

n.疾病，小病

参考例句：

• I don't have even the slightest ailment.我什么毛病也没有。
• He got timely treatment for his ailment.他的病得到了及时治疗。

17 digestion   

n.消化，吸收

参考例句：

• This kind of tea acts as an aid to digestion.这种茶可助消化。
• This food is easy of digestion.这食物容易消化。

18 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

19 chafed   

v.擦热（尤指皮肤）( chafe的过去式 )；擦痛；发怒；惹怒

参考例句：

• Her wrists chafed where the rope had been. 她的手腕上绳子勒过的地方都磨红了。
• She chafed her cold hands. 她揉搓冰冷的双手使之暖和。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

20 linen   

n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的

参考例句：

• The worker is starching the linen.这名工人正在给亚麻布上浆。
• Fine linen and cotton fabrics were known as well as wool.精细的亚麻织品和棉织品像羊毛一样闻名遐迩。

21 overalls   

n.（复）工装裤；长罩衣

参考例句：

• He is in overalls today.他今天穿的是工作裤。
• He changed his overalls for a suit.他脱下工装裤，换上了一套西服。

22 ruminative   

adj.沉思的，默想的，爱反复思考的

参考例句：

• in a ruminative mood 陷于沉思

23 homely   

adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的

参考例句：

• We had a homely meal of bread and cheese.我们吃了一顿面包加乳酪的家常便餐。
• Come and have a homely meal with us,will you?来和我们一起吃顿家常便饭，好吗？

24 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

25 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

26 nostrums   

n.骗人的疗法，有专利权的药品( nostrum的名词复数 )；妙策

参考例句：

• It is likely that these \"enlightened\" nostrums would have speeded up the catastrophe. 这些“开明的”药方本身就可能加快灾难的到来。 来自辞典例句

27 sprains   

扭伤( sprain的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Bruises, sprains, muscular pain, muscular fatigue, lumbago, stiff shoulders, backache. 跌打扭伤，肌肉疼痛，肌肉疲劳，腰痛，肩肌僵直，背痛。
• For recent injuries such as sprains and headaches, cold compresses are recommended. 对最近的一些伤病，例如扭伤和头痛，建议进行冷敷。

28 bruises   

n.瘀伤，伤痕，擦伤( bruise的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was covered with bruises after falling off his bicycle. 他从自行车上摔了下来，摔得浑身伤痕。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The pear had bruises of dark spots. 这个梨子有碰伤的黑斑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

29 justified   

a.正当的，有理的

参考例句：

• She felt fully justified in asking for her money back. 她认为有充分的理由要求退款。
• The prisoner has certainly justified his claims by his actions. 那个囚犯确实已用自己的行动表明他的要求是正当的。

30 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

31 virtues   

美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处

参考例句：

• Doctors often extol the virtues of eating less fat. 医生常常宣扬少吃脂肪的好处。
• She delivered a homily on the virtues of family life. 她进行了一场家庭生活美德方面的说教。

32 resinous   

adj.树脂的，树脂质的，树脂制的

参考例句：

• Alcohol is a solvent of resinous substances.酒精是树脂性物质的溶媒。
• He observed that the more resinous the wood, the more resistant it was to decay.他观察到木材含树脂越多，其抗腐力越强。

33 varnish   

n.清漆；v.上清漆；粉饰

参考例句：

• He tried to varnish over the facts,but it was useless.他想粉饰事实，但那是徒劳的。
• He applied varnish to the table.他给那张桌子涂上清漆。

34 tilted   

v. 倾斜的

参考例句：

• Suddenly the boat tilted to one side. 小船突然倾向一侧。
• She tilted her chin at him defiantly. 她向他翘起下巴表示挑衅。

35 penetrating   

adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的

参考例句：

• He had an extraordinarily penetrating gaze. 他的目光有股异乎寻常的洞察力。
• He examined the man with a penetrating gaze. 他以锐利的目光仔细观察了那个人。

36 fragrance   

n.芬芳，香味，香气

参考例句：

• The apple blossoms filled the air with their fragrance.苹果花使空气充满香味。
• The fragrance of lavender filled the room.房间里充满了薰衣草的香味。

37 brewing   

n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• It was obvious that a big storm was brewing up. 很显然，一场暴风雨正在酝酿中。
• She set about brewing some herb tea. 她动手泡一些药茶。

38 mead   

n.蜂蜜酒

参考例句：

• He gave me a cup of mead.他给我倒了杯蜂蜜酒。
• He drank some mead at supper.晚饭时他喝了一些蜂蜜酒。

39 antiquated   

adj.陈旧的，过时的

参考例句：

• Many factories are so antiquated they are not worth saving.很多工厂过于陈旧落后，已不值得挽救。
• A train of antiquated coaches was waiting for us at the siding.一列陈旧的火车在侧线上等着我们。

40 quaffed   

v.痛饮( quaff的过去式和过去分词 )；畅饮；大口大口将…喝干；一饮而尽

参考例句：

• He's quaffed many a glass of champagne in his time. 他年轻时曾经开怀畅饮过不少香槟美酒。 来自辞典例句
• He quaffed the swelling rapture of life from the foaming goblet of the infinite. 他从那穹苍的起泡的杯中，痛饮充满生命的狂喜。 来自辞典例句

41 wholesome   

adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的

参考例句：

• In actual fact the things I like doing are mostly wholesome.实际上我喜欢做的事大都是有助于增进身体健康的。
• It is not wholesome to eat without washing your hands.不洗手吃饭是不卫生的。