"Owing to the want of knowledge on the subject, the consequent impurities, and the great price of foreign honey, together with the adulterations practised, the use of this valuable article has been nearly abandoned in this country, whether as an article of the materia medica or of domestic economy; and for the reasons just stated, the preparations of honey have even been expunged from the Edinburgh Pharmacopeia. From the recent improvement, however, by the gentleman just mentioned, we have reason to hope its use will be restored in a condition vastly improved, and that at a great reduction in price, the facilities of production being greatly enhanced, and such as to render it in time available to all classes of society.
"Pure honey was justly considered by the ancients to possess the most valuable balsamic and pectoral properties--as a lenitive, ecoprotic, and detergent; and it is well-known to dissolve viscid phlegm and promote expectoration. As a medium for other remedies, it is in its pure state far superior to sirups, as being less liable to run into the acetous fermentation. It appears that honey procured on Mr. Nutt's plan is not excelled by the finest and most costly samples from the continent, as that of Minorca, Narbonne, or Montpelier. The various impurities and extraneous matter usually contained in honey, cause it in many cases to produce griping pains, or uneasy sensations in the stomach and bowels; this however has no such effect, unless it be taken to an imprudent extent.
"Pure honey, though in its ultimate elements similar to refined sugar, yet differs considerably in its physiological effects on the body, being a _lenitive_, _aperient_ or gentle laxative, and hence incomparably more beneficial in costive habits. It has in a dietetic or medicinal point of view been recommended in gravel or calculous complaints; of this however I have no knowledge, but its utility in asthma I have experienced in my own person as well as in others;--as also as an efficacious remedy in hooping cough, taken with antimonial wine, camphor, arid opium. For sedentary persons and those troubled with constipation of the bowels, there is no dietetic or medicinal substance so useful as pure honey, whether taken in drink or with bread and butter, &c. It is well-known as a detergent of foul sores, and I have often found it to succeed in healing deep-seated sinuous or fistulous ulcers, and thus to obviate the necessity of surgical operations.