The Best Thoughts & Quotes on Sherlock Holmes

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“There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.” Arthur Conan Doyle, The Boscombe Valley Mystery

“I wanted to end the world, but I'll settle for ending yours.” Arthur Conan Doyle

“I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix.” Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone

“My mind," he said, "rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I have chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world.” Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four

“What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is what can you make people believe you have done.” Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet

“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.” Arthur Conan Doyle, The Valley of Fear

“Holmes and Watson are on a camping trip. In the middle of the night Holmes wakes up and gives Dr. Watson a nudge. "Watson" he says, "look up in the sky and tell me what you see."
"I see millions of stars, Holmes," says Watson.
"And what do you conclude from that, Watson?"
Watson thinks for a moment. "Well," he says, "astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meterologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I see that God is all-powerful, and we are small and insignficant. Uh, what does it tell you, Holmes?"
"Watson, you idiot! Someone has stolen our tent!” Thomas Cathcart

“Show Holmes a drop of water and he would deduce the existence of the Atlantic. Show it to me and I would look for a tap. That was the difference between us.” Anthony Horowitz, The House of Silk

“How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?” Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four

“To a great mind, nothing is little.” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

“That head of yours should be for use as well as ornament.” Arthur Conan Doyle

“If you must be Sherlock Holmes," she observed, "I'll get you a nice little syringe and a bottle labelled cocaine, but for God's sake leave that violin alone.” Agatha Christie

“Jesus Christ—”
“Sherlock Holmes, actually. And you were doing such a good job remembering my name.” Eva Morgan, Locked

“Work is the best antidote to sorrow, my dear Watson.” The Return of Sherlock Holmes

“Of all ghosts the ghosts of our old loves are the worst.” The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“There's a light in a woman's eyes that speaks louder than words.” The Hound of the Baskervilles

“The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply.” Arthur Conan Doyle

“The Press, Watson, is a most valuable institution, if you only know how to use it.” Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Six Napoleons

“Do you remember," he said, "one of Holmes's little scores over Watson about the number of steps up to the Baker Street lodging? Poor old Watson had been up and down them a thousand times, but he had never thought of counting them, whereas Holmes had counted them as a matter of course, and knew that there were seventeen. And that was supposed to be the difference between observation and non-observation. Watson was crushed again, and Holmes appeared to him more amazing than ever. Now, it always seemed to me that in that matter Holmes was the ass, and Watson the sensible person. What on earth is the point of keeping in your head an unnecessary fact like that? If you really want to know at any time the number of steps to your lodging, you can ring up your landlady and ask her.” A.A. Milne, The Red House Mystery

“But there can be no grave for Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson...Shall they not always live in Baker Street? Are they not there this moment, as one writes? Outside, the hansoms rattle through the rain, and Moriarty plans his latest devilry. Within, the sea-coal flames upon the hearth and Holmes and Watson take their well-won case...So they still live for all that love them well; in a romantic chamber of the heart, in a nostalgic country of the mind, where it is always 1895.” Vincent Starrett, The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes

“A Dickens character to me is a theatrical projection of a character. Not that it isn't real. It's real, but in that removed sense. But Sherlock Holmes is simply there. I would be astonished if I went to 221 1/2 B Baker Street and didn't find him." Rex Stout

“Watson is a cheap, efficient little sod of a literary device. Holmes doesn't need him to solve crimes any more than he needs a ten-stone ankle weight. The audience, Arthur. The audience needs Watson as an intermediary, so that Holmes's thoughts might be forever kept just out of reach. If you told stories from Holmes's perspective, everyone would know what the bleeding genius was thinking the whole time. They'd have the culprit fingered on page one.” Graham Moore, The Sherlockian

“To me, detective stories are a great solace, a sort of mental knitting, where it doesn't matter if you drop a stitch." Rupert Hart-Davis

“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.” Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“Dr. Watson's summary list of Sherlock Holmes's strengths and weaknesses:
1. Knowledge of Literature: Nil.
2. Knowledge of Philosophy: Nil.
3. Knowledge of Astronomy: Nil.
4. Knowledge of Politics: Feeble.
5. Knowledge of Botany: Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening.
6. Knowledge of Geology: Practical but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them.
7. Knowledge of Chemistry: Profound.
8. Knowledge of Anatomy: Accurate but unsystematic.
9. Knowledge of Sensational Literature: Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century.
10. Plays the violin well.
11. Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman.
12. Has a good practical knowledge of British law.” Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet

Ben Garrett: How do you do all that?
Sherlock: I was bitten by a radioactive detective. (Elementary TV Series)

Edgar Allan Poe, who, in his carelessly prodigal fashion, threw out the seeds from which so many of our present forms of literature have sprung, was the father of the detective tale, and covered its limits so completely that I fail to see how his followers can find any fresh ground which they can confidently call their own. For the secret of the thinness and also of the intensity of the detective story is, that the writer is left with only one quality, that of intellectual acuteness, with which to endow his hero. Everything else is outside the picture and weakens the effect. The problem and its solution must form the theme, and the character-drawing be limited and subordinate. On this narrow path the writer must walk, and he sees the footmarks of Poe always in front of him. He is happy if he ever finds the means of breaking away and striking out on some little side-track of his own. A. Conan Doyle

Irene Adler: Why are you always so suspicious?
Sherlock Holmes: Should I answer chronologically or alphabetically? (Sherlock Holmes movie 2009)

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How the Dog Got His Cold Nose

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The Dog's Cold Nose, from The United Mine Workers Journal 1915

When your faithful old dog pokes his nose into your hand, even your affection cannot prevent a shiver. Why is it? When the body of a dog is so warm, why should this one spot be different from the rest of him? The old fable tells us that when Noah tried to get all the animals into the ark some of them were troublesome, and he had to get a dog to help him drive the last to enter the ark. There was no room left, so he had to stand in the doorway with his nose outside in the wet, and it has never been warm since. Science gives quite another explanation of the matter. The coldness of a dog's nose, says science, is due to the fact that it must be kept moist all the time in order to sharpen his sense of smell. And, as the moisture is cooled by the air, it keeps his nose cold all the time. In addition to the olfactory or smelling nerves inside a dog's nostrils, the whole black membrane around the nose is very sensitive, and this sensitiveness can only be retained by moisture. Thus it is that when a dog's nose is dry and warm he is ill and needs doctoring.

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Epistle Of Polycarp By Alvan Lamson 1865

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Epistle Of Polycarp By Alvan Lamson

We now come to the Epistle of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, to the Philippians. Irenaeus tells us that he, in his youth, knew Polycarp well, that he was acquainted with his manner of life, his person, and discourses. Polycarp, he says, was a disciple of the Apostles, and conversed with those who had seen the Lord. Jerome makes him a disciple particularly of John ; J and Irenaeus says, that he was in the habit of relating to him conversations he had with that venerable man. According to Jerome he was ordained by John. The time of his birth and death cannot be ascertained, though it is certain that he lived to a very great age, and that he ended his days by martyrdom. The learned differ as to the date of this event, some placing it as early as 147, others, among whom is Bunsen, as late as 169. His death, if the relation given in the Letter of the church of Smyrna to the other churches on the subject of his martyrdom is to be relied upon, was in the last degree noble and affecting, though portions of the narrative certainly have the air of fable. The genuineness, in the main, of the Epistle to the Philippians ascribed to him, though called in question by some among the older, as well as more recent critics, and denied by those of the Tubingen school, who make Polycarp a "mythical personage," there is no sufficient reason, perhaps, for doubting. Mr. Norton receives it as a genuine relic of the martyr, with the exception of a passage near the end relating to the Ignatian Epistles, to which he, in common with other critics, takes exception, as bearing clear marks of interpolation or forgery. It is supposed to have originally ended with the doxology in the twelfth chapter. The early part of the second century is assigned as the probable date of its composition.

The Epistle, which is mostly hortative, and retains the old simplicity of thought and expression, is brief, and will help us very little in our inquiry as to what Christians of that day believed concerning the origin and precise rank of the Son. Its testimony to the supremacy of the Father, and the subordination of the Son, however, is clear and decisive. Thus we are saved "by the will of God through Jesus Christ"; — "who died, and was raised again by God for us." Again, the writer speaks of believing in "him who raised up our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, and gave him glory and a throne at his right hand; to whom all things in heaven and on earth are made subject, whom every living creature shall worship"; not, however, as supreme. The prevailing language of the Epistle teaches the contrary. So in the following quotation: "Now the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he himself, the everlasting high-priest, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and truth." Here the Son is sufficiently distinguished from the Father. The high-priest makes an offering to God, but is not God himself.

Such passages, scattered over the short Epistle, show clearly enough that this old martyr had no conception of Jesus Christ as equal with God, or as one with him except in will and purpose. Here are no metaphysics, no confusion or obscurity, no hair-splitting distinctions. The Father is separated from the Son by a broad and distinct line, one as supreme, the other as subordinate; one as giving, the other as receiving; the Father granting to the Son a "throne at his right hand."

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The Phantom Portrait

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The Phantom Portrait

From Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Table Talk

A stranger came recommended to a merchant's house at Lubeck. He was hospitably received; but, the house being full, he was lodged at night in an apartment handsomely furnished, but not often used. There was nothing that struck him particularly in the room when left alone, till he happened to cast his eyes on a picture, which immediately arrested his attention. It was a single head; but there was something so uncommon, so frightful and unearthly, in its expression, though by no means ugly, that he found himself irresistibly attracted to look at it. In fact, he could not tear himself from the fascination of this portrait, till his imagination was filled by it, and his rest broken. He retired to bed, dreamed, and awoke from time to time, with the head glaring on him. In the morning, his host saw by his looks that he had slept ill, and inquired the cause, which was told. The master of the house was much vexed, and said that the picture ought to have been removed; that it was an oversight; and that it always was removed when the chamber was used. The picture, he said, was, indeed, terrible to every one; but it was so fine, and had come into the family in so curious a way, that he could not make up his mind to part with it, or to destroy it.

The story of it was this:—‘My father,’ said he, “was at Hamburgh on business, and while dining at a coffee-house, he observed a young man of a remarkable appearance enter, seat himself alone in a corner, and commence a solitary meal. His countenance bespoke the extreme of mental distress, and every now and then he turned his head quickly round, as if he heard something, then shudder, grow pale, and go on with his meal after an effort as before. My father saw this same man at the same place for two or three successive days, and at length became so much interested about him, that he spoke to him. The address was not repulsed, and the stranger seemed to find some comfort in the tone of sympathy and kindness which my father used. He was an Italian, well informed, poor, but not destitute, and living economically upon the profits of his art as a painter. Their intimacy increased; and at length the Italian, seeing my father's involuntary emotion at his convulsive turnings and shudderings, which continued as formerly, interrupting their conversation from time to time, told him his story. He was a native of Rome, and had lived in some familiarity with, and been much patronised by, a young nobleman; but upon some slight occasion they had fallen out, and his patron, besides using many reproachful expressions, had struck him. The painter brooded over the disgrace of the blow. He could not challenge the nobleman, on account of his rank; he therefore watched for an opportunity, and assassinated him. Of course he fled from his country, and finally had reached Hamburgh. He had not, however, passed many weeks from the night of the murder, before one day, in the crowded street, he heard his name called by a voice familiar to him: he turned short round, and saw the face of his victim looking at him with a fixed eye. From that moment he had no peace: at all hours, in all places, and amidst all companies, however engaged he might be, he heard the voice, and could never help looking round; and, whenever he so looked round, he always encountered the same face staring close upon him. At last, in a mood of desperation, he had fixed himself face to face, and eye to eye, and deliberately drawn the phantom visage as it glared upon him; and this was the picture so drawn. The Italian said he had struggled long, but life was a burden which he could now no longer bear; and he was resolved, when he had made money enough to return to Rome, to surrender himself to justice, and expiate his crime on the scaffold. He gave the finished picture to my father, in return for the kindness which he had shown to him.

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The Shepherd Of Hermas By Alvan Lamson 1865

The Shepherd Of Hermas By Alvan Lamson 1865

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There is a Hermas mentioned by St. Paul (Romans xvi. 14), to whom this work has been attributed. It is undoubtedly an ancient writing. Eusebius speaks of it as publicly read in the churches, and Jerome tells us that it was read in some churches of Greece, that is, if we understand him, in his day, but that it was almost unknown to the Latins. Both name Hermas as the reputed author, but neither affirms that he was so. Both speak with hesitation and reserve. The work is also quoted or referred to by Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Origen. Justin Martyr does not quote it. It has been ascribed to the end of the first century. But Mr. Norton, who discusses the question of its date with his usual acuteness and learning, concludes from evidence furnished by a "fragment" of Christian antiquity published by Muratori in 1740, that it was "not written till about the year 150." [Genuineness of the Gospels, vol. i., Additional Notes, p. ccxlviii., etc.]

Bunsen, who also uses the Muratorian fragment, attributed by him to Hegesippus, arrives at a conclusion not very dissimilar. He supposes that the "fragment" was written about the year 170. It says of the Shepherd of Hermas, that it was written at Rome very recently, in our own times, by Hermas; while his brother Pius occupied the episcopal chair. Now, according to the vulgar chronology, Pius became Bishop of Rome A.D. 142; Bunsen makes the time of his episcopate to extend from A. D. 132 or 133 to 157. Either chronology, Bunsen's or the vulgar, would authorize Mr. Norton's inference in regard to the time of the composition. Bunsen, however, thinks that he is able to show, "from the book itself," that it was written in 139 or 140. This, if it be so, does not conflict very materially with Mr. Norton's opinion. But whether Ave adopt the year 140 or 150 as the date, is of little importance so far as concerns our present inquiry. We may safely refer its origin to about the middle of the second century, or a little earlier. It was written in Greek, but the original was long supposed to be lost, with the exception of a few fragments preserved in quotations; and until lately we have possessed it only in an ancient Latin translation. [The Greek text was first published at Leipsic in 1856, or rather in December, 1855, by Rudolph Anger, with a preface by William Dindorf, and more accurately by Tischendorf in Dressel's edition of the Apostolic Fathers, Leipsic, 1857. These editions were founded on a manuscript of Hermas discovered by the notorious Constantine Simonides at Mount Athos, three leaves of which, with a copy of the rest, he sold to the University of Leipsic. The defects of that manuscript, which is of the fifteenth century, and presents a very corrupt text, have been partially supplied by Tischendorf's great discovery of the "Codex Sinaiticus," which he assigns to the middle of the fourth century.] This manuscript was found in the monastery of St. Catharine, on Mount Sinai, in 1859, and contains the greater part of the Old Testament (in Greek), and the whole of the New, together with the Epistle of Barnabas, and about one fourth of the Shepherd of Hermas, in the original Greek. The two latter books, when the manuscript was written, appear to hare been classed, in some churches, with the canonical writings of the New Testament; though as to the production of Hermas, Niebuhr, as Bunsen tells us, used to say that he "pitied the Athenian Christians for being obliged to hear it read in their assemblies."

The work consists of three books, — Visions, Commands, and Similitudes, the two latter being communicated to the writer, as he says, by an angel in the guise of a shepherd; hence the title of the work. It is a wild book. The writer seems to have been, in some sense, an imitator of St. John in the Revelation, at least to have read the Apocalypse; and in his visions and similitudes he gives great license to his imagination. Mr. Norton's comparison of the work to Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" is suggestive and forcible.

In a writing of such a character we can hardly expect to find much which admits of quotation, relating to the doctrines of a speculative theology. It has a great deal to say of God, and "living to God," of allegorical personages and angels, and little, in comparison, of Jesus Christ. God appears in it, and God only, as the Supreme and Infinite One, the sole independent creator and governor of the universe, who alone is eternal. The first Command begins: "First of all believe that there is one God, who created and formed all things out of nothing. He comprehends all, and is alone immense; who can neither be defined by words, nor conceived by the mind."

Similar phraseology ascribing the act of creation directly to God repeatedly occurs. Thus, "God, who dwelleth in heaven, hath made all things out of nothing"; — "who by his invisible power and his excellent wisdom made the world"; — who "ruleth over all things and hath power over all his creatures." Thus he is supreme, sole maker and governor of the universe. True, in the Similitude just quoted, the writer, referring to the name of the Son of God, says the "whole world is supported by it." This, if it do not point to the new spiritual creation under Christ its head, seems to conflict with what is elsewhere asserted, that God created and governs all things by a direct act of his power. Possibly the writer may have believed, according to the doctrine about that time beginning to develop itself, that the Father made use of the Son as his instrument in creating and ruling the world, though the prevailing form of expression throughout the work implies the contrary. Martini ascribes this belief to him.

Throughout the work, however, the highest titles and epithets are applied to God, never to the Son, who is subject, and receives all from the Father. Thus in the fifth Similitude: "Having blotted out the sins of his people, he showed to them the paths of life, giving them the law which he had received of the Father He is Lord of his people, having received all power from his Father."

By the "first created Spirit," in the following passage, eminent critics, Martini and Bunsen among the number, suppose is meant Christ. This seems to us incontestable. The passage, according to the text adopted by Martini, reads thus: "That Holy Spirit, which was created first of all, God placed in a body in which it should dwell, in a chosen body, as it pleased him." [Sim. v.c.6.]Bunsen varies the punctuation somewhat in the latter part of the passage, giving what he calls a "reconstituted text," which, however, does not affect what is said of the Spirit as "created first of all," the reading which he adopts, and which Archbishop Wake also follows.

["Created" (creatus). There is here a difference of reading. In the text of some editions we have infusus instead of creatus. Creatus, we conceive, has the best manuscript authorities in its favor. Martini says, that the old manuscript authorities have creatus, and that infusus is a later interpolation. Bunsen adopts creatus on the authority of the Dresden and other manuscripts. The Lambeth, Carmelite, and Vatican have creatus; and thus from a collection of manuscripts and editions Grabe corrects the text. (This is also the reading of the independent Latin version contained in the Codex Palatinus; and Dressel, in his edition of the Apostolic Fathers, adopts it as genuine. The Greek text of the passage in the manuscript of Simonides is peculiar, and, when compared with the old Latin versions, leads one to suspect that the original has been altered on dogmatic grounds. It is as follows: to pneuma to hagion to proon, to ktisan pasan ten ktisin, katokisen, ho theos eis sarka en ebouleto "the preexisting holy spirit which created the whole creation God caused to dwell in a body which he chose." The Ethiopic version, which gives a very free rendering of the whole chapter, reads, "The holy spirit which created all things dwelt in a body which he chose." The fragment of Hermas contained in the Codex Sinaiticus does not include this passage. — Ed.) See Notes to the Amsterdam and recent Paris editions; also Bunsen, Christianity and Mankind, vol. i. pp.211, 212 (Hippolytus); Martini, Versuch, etc., p. 28. Archbishop Wake seems to have followed the Lambeth manuscript.]

 The "Son of God," says Bunsen, "is the Holy Spirit." He claims that his explanation is neither Athanasian nor Arian; certainly it is not Athanasian. It savors strongly of Arianism, however, as it makes Christ a created being, and possibly this work, ascribed to Hermas, may have been one of the ancient writings referred to by the Arians, when they asserted that their doctrine was that of the old Christians. The early Fathers, it is to be observed, frequently confounded the Son with the Spirit.

The following passage, which affirms the preexistence of the Son, but not his eternity, the Arians might have used without scruple. "This rock and this gate are the Son of God. I replied, Sir, how can that be? seeing the rock is old, but the gate new....He answered, The Son of God is indeed more ancient than any creature, so that he was in counsel with his Father at the creation of all things. But the gate is therefore new because he appeared in the last days, even the fulness of time." The preexistence of the Son, which is not distinctly asserted in Clement's Epistle, no doubt an earlier writing, here clearly enough appears.

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Bees and Honey in Medicine (1922 Article)

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Bees and Honey in Medicine - The Opinion of Another Physician, article in the American Bee Journal 1922

By Doctor Bob

The Promised Land of Israel is described as the “Land of Milk and Honey.” Modern medical research has found that milk is almost a perfect food and that honey is both food and medicine.

Now the question arises, what is meant by medicine? The Century dictionary tells us: “A substance used as a remedy for disease, a substance having, or supposed to have, curative properties." The Medical Dictionary tells us: “The art of healing diseases." Not many years ago the average doctor understood by medicines, pills or nasty concoctions. That was why he laid his profession bare to such unmerciful criticism by various faddists, physical culturists and others. And their criticism, although not always wise or prudent, did much to bring about a very useful reform. These days the average physician understands the proper definition of medicine. Some physical culturists and other healers still direct their shafts at the regular physician.

This article is not intended as a defense of the physician, he needs no defense, if he is a real modern physician, he uses whatever means are expedient to acomplish a cure, be it physical culture, osteopathy or what not.

It has been quite the proper form of recent years in certain magazines to condemn drugs, setting forth the virtues of proper diet and exercise. Of course, an excess of pills and decoctions, many of which contained deleterious substances, sold and prescribed promiscuously, brought about a reaction. But let us see what a “drug” really is.

The Century Dictionary tells us a "drug" is any vegetable, animal or mineral matter that is used in medicine. So there you are again.

It is plain that most any food may be a drug and many drugs a food. Long articles appear from time to time warning us against drugs, especially laxatives. These articles tell us what to eat to remedy a condition ——yet if we eat to remedy a condition we are taking a drug—a medicine. Lots of our medicines, too, are just extracts of foods. So you see it is very hard to draw a line between food and drugs. Some well-meaning friend may warn you against some extract or a syrup of the very food he would give you as a remedy!

All this dissertation brings us back to the beginning in which we find our first parents in the Garden of Eden given explicit instructions as to their eating.

As it was in the beginning, so it shall be in the end; life and death are very largely dependent on what we have to put into our stomachs.

Various substances, call them food or medicine as you please, have power to affect the human system in various ways. Probably the Lord,

when He sees proper to give us back the perfection our first parents lost, will teach us enough about eating to enable us to maintain life indefinitely. It seems the Israelites considered locusts a valuable food. Galen and Pliny used the bee in medicine. Hollerius and Alexander Bened used honey bees in honey as both an external application and internal remedy. Later Mouffet in 1658 speaks of their use in his day. In 1682 Salmon tells us: “The whole bee given inwardly provokes urine, opens stoppages of the reins and breaks the stone; they are good against cancers, schirrous tumors, King’s evil, dropsies, dimness of vision, etc.”

Dale’s Pharmocopae, 1739, makes mention of Apis as used for baldness and as a diuretic.

The Complete English Dispensatory, London, 1749, speaks of prepared bees.

Lewis Materia Medica, 1768, gives Apis, or bees, short notice.

Others spoke of bees as being active medicinally, but the bee was not considered as an important medicine again until the 19th century, when Dr. Scudder, an eclectic, speaks favorably of them as a remedy for women.

The Medical Summary, A. D., 1908, contains an article by Dr. F. P. Davis, “Study of Apis," which is both comprehensive and to the point. Among other statements Dr. Davis said: "If there is any remedy that will give prompt and expected results, when properly exhibited, it is Apis.”

It is interesting to note that when the sting is removed from the bee it continues to operate in a pump-like manner as long as it is in contact with the flesh, for quite some time.

The composition of the poison of the honeybee is not known to chemistry with any degree of accuracy. It is, of course, probably a vegetable poison.

Apis has a depressing influence on the heart and experimentally causes paralysis in birds. Properly used by physicians, it is useful in conditions of dropsy, fever, scarlatina and various other conditions known to physicians. Many have heard of the use of the bee sting to cure rheumatism, in which instance the following historic incident is interesting as related to the Eclectic Medical Society of Kansas City in 1904, by Dr. Packer.

“A Mr. Gardner, of this city, had been laid up with articular rheumatism for four years, and had been unable to walk any distance, and that only slowly and with a pair of crutches.

“In August, 1903, he was hobbling around the yard and upset a bee hive. The bees stung him by the hundreds and almost killed him. But when he recovered from the bee stings his rheumatism was gone, nor did it ever return."

Bee stings are generally quite painful, occasionally serious, and rarely fatal. Among the easily obtainable remedies for bee stings are ammonia water and bruised stramonium leaves, commonly known as jimson weed.

It is not the purpose of this article to exploit remedies, and some of the regular profession do not place any confidence in the bee as a remedy. It is easier to deny than to affirm. Time will decide all things. In the meantime most laymen will do well to suspend judgment in matters outside their special domain of experience.

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The New World Translation Defended (April 2 2018)

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Introducing a new blog dedicated to the New World Translation Bible, a Bible version that is unfairly criticized. Simply visit https://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/ and right now it features the following articles:

And the Logos was a god, by John Samuel Thompson 1828

John does not teach that the Logos was God, in the absolute sense of the term; but in a subordinate sense. Those who contend for the supreme deity of the Logos, assert that the construction of the Greek, is such as warrants their conclusion; for say they, the word God, being the predicate of the proposition, should not have the article.

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/02/and-logos-was-god-by-john-samuel.html

Origen's Subordinationist Trinity By Alvan Lamson 1865

Again: the Son and Spirit, he says, "are excelled by the Father, as much or more than they excel other beings." — "He is in no respect to be compared with the Father; for he is the image of his goodness, and the effulgence, not of God, but of his glory and of his eternal light; and a ray, not of the Father, but of his power, and a pure emanation of his most powerful glory, and a spotless mirror of his energy."

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/02/origens-subordinationist-trinity-by.html

And the word was a God by William McGirr 1854

...mark how they leave the "a" out, but how carefully they attach it to Moses: "I have made thee a God to Pharaoh." And why so? Because they abhorred the idea of deifying Moses, but they wanted to deify Jesus, to make him the second person of their triune God. So much for poor human nature!

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/02/and-word-was-god-by-william-mcgirr-1854.html

Plato, Philo, and Jesus as "a God" by Paul Wernle 1904

Of Christian writers, St Paul was the first to look upon Christ as such an intermediary being, higher than all the angels, yet lower than God Himself

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/02/plato-philo-and-jesus-as-god-by-paul.html

Exodus 3:14: The Most Perverted Translation by John S. Thompson 1825

To make therefore, the I AM of the Evangelist, a reference to this passage of the Pentateuch is a most idle fancy, unsupported by the original; and what is more to the purpose, it is equally unsupported hy the Septuagint; the text book of the Gospel writers.

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/exodus-314-most-perverted-translation.html

Alternate Interpretations of John 20:28

Milton's view of the passage may not improbably be as old as the time of Theodore of Mopsuestia, who certainly rejected the common interpretation of the passage.

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/alternate-interpretations-of-john-2028.html

300 Bible Texts Teach the Inferiority of the Son, by James Gifford 1820

There are above 300 texts according with our understanding, positively and by the clearest implication declaring the inferiority of Christ, against 11;” of which four are acknowledged interpolations and mistranslations.

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/300-bible-texts-teach-inferiority-of.html

The Timeline of the Evolution of the Trinity Doctrine by Hugh H. Stannus 1899

The origin and development of the doctrine of a Triune Deity in the Church is clearly traced to Platonic and other influences during the third and fourth centuries.

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-timeline-of-evolution-of-trinity.html

John 14:14 and the Missing ME

The word "ME" is also omitted from ancient manuscripts like A, D, K, L, Codex Petropolitanus, Codex Athous Laurae and the Byzantine manuscripts amongst others.

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/john-1414-and-missing-me.html

Trinitarianism and Unitarianism in the Early Church by Frederick A. Farley 1860

There is no pretence, that before Justin Martyr, A.D. 140, any clear evidence has come down to us of belief in the early Church of even the derived deity of Christ.

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/trinitarianism-and-unitarianism-in.html

The Word's Elohim and One in Hebrew do NOT Prove the Trinity Doctrine

"The plural form does not indicate multiple gods, but God and the retinue of the divine court." Harper Collins Study Bible NRSV (cf. Zondervan NASB Study Bible, Oxford Annotated Bible-RSV, and Oxford Study Bible - REB)

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-words-elohim-and-one-in-hebrew-do.html

Who Were the Three Men Who Appeared to Abraham?

In Genesis 18 and 19, do we have a multiplicity of the God Jehovah?

Gen 19:1,2, "And Jehovah appeared unto him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood over against him." ASV

The Hypostatic Union - an Enormous Tax on Human Credulity By William Ellery Channing

We complain of the doctrine of the Trinity, that, not satisfied with making God three beings, it makes Jesus Christ two beings, and thus introduces infinite confusion into our conceptions of his character.

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-hypostatic-union-enormous-tax-on.html

What Writers of the Past Have Said of the Logos at John 1:1

If, in the introduction to his Gospel, John had asserted that Jesus was truly God, he would have proposed to his readers a Messiah whose very nature and properties were totally different from those of the person whom the prophets predicted, and whose advent the Jews eagerly expected.

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/what-writers-of-past-have-said-of-logos.html

"Why do you call me good? Nobody is good, except one, God." Mark 10:18

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/why-do-you-call-me-good-nobody-is-good.html

Only-begotten, Monogenes, Unigenitus and Monogennetos

"Unique" is a better translation than most, but it never quite explains how the subject is unique.

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/only-begotten-monogenes-unigenitus-and.html

A Brief Look at S. Ayoade’s Arian Anti Trinity New Testament

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/a-brief-look-at-s-ayoades-arian-anti.html

An Early Christian Look at the Word "God."

When Men Could Become Gods

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/an-early-christian-look-at-word-god.html

Romans 8:1 and the Case of the Missing "Now" in the New World Translation

When it comes to translating the Greek word in question, NUN, the NWT is actually closer to the Greek. The NWT uses just ONE word to translate NUN, while the NRSV needs FOUR english words to translate this one Greek word, and yet, only the NWT is singled out as tampering with the text.

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/romans-81-and-case-of-missing-now-in.html

George Vance Smith on Sharp's Rule (Titus 2:13) 1892

In the Epistles there are two passages which have been considered of great importance, as direct testimonies for the deity of Christ. They have not been noticed in the body of this work, chiefly from the desire not to burden the text with too many of such details; but a few brief remarks may be introduced here. The passages referred to are Titus ii. 13 and 1 John v. 20, to which may be added 2 Pet. i. 1 (R. V.)

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/george-vance-smith-on-sharps-rule-titus.html

The Word was with God and Polytheism, by Edmund Law, Bishop of Carlisle 1808

Any writer would be treated with just contempt who should talk of a man being with himself; and can we suppose that the pen of an inspired evangelist would express what from any other would be absolute nonsense?

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-word-was-with-god-and-polytheism-by.html

Using Acts 28:4 to Understand How to Translate John 1:1 in the Greek

The construction of Acts 28:4, being a pre-verbal Predicate Nominative (PN) is a great way to demonstrate how to translate John 1:1c.

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/using-acts-284-to-understand-how-to.html

Is Jesus called GOD at 1 John 5:20, By George Vance Smith 1892

"it should be noted that precisely in St. John's First Epistle [O QEOS] ho theos, "the true God" so often certainly means the Father that it must be understood of the Father throughout the Epistle, unless we are to suppose that some incomprehensible change has taken place in the subject referred to by O QEOS." Theological Investigations, Vol. 1 by Karl Rahner,

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/is-jesus-called-god-at-1-john-520-by.html

Clement of Rome and the Trinity Doctrine, by Alvan Lamson 1865

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/clement-of-rome-and-trinity-doctrine-by.html

Defending the New American Bible Against Catholics

Gratia Plena, Luke 1:28, the Spirit and Genesis 1:2 and the New American Bible

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/defending-new-american-bible-against.html

Good Friday: A Chronological Mistake? By James Gall 1882

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/good-friday-chronological-mistake-by.html

The Easter Controversy by W.F. Adeney D.D. 1921

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-easter-controversy-by-wf-adeney-dd.html

Easter Eggs in Past Customs and Pagan Tradition, 1896 article

http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/04/easter-eggs-in-past-customs-and-pagan.html

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