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In Greece and Italy: Aristotle

Bee-keeping in the time of Aristotle did not differ essentially from bee-keeping fifty years ago, in some respects being superior, as evidently it was the habit of the Greeks to remove the combs from the hives without killing the bees, - a cruel and wasteful practice followed by succeeding generations even to the present time. The Greeks generally used smoke to quiet the bees, as is done by the more advanced bee-keepers to-day, and the industrious insects were not as a rule smoked to death with fumes of sulphur, though it is not improbable this was some- In Greece and Italy 3 II times done, as Aristotle says that many bees perish by the fumes of sulphur, though he also incidentally informs us upon the other side of this interesting subject, where he says, - "The bees do not hunt for prey, but they both produce and lay up stores. This is plainly shown when the honeydealers attempt to take the combs. When they are fumigated and suffering from the effects of the smoke, they devour the honey greedily, which they are not observed to do at other times; but they spare it and store it up for food."

Smoking wild bees to get their honey was practised, as Apollonius Rhodius, who lived a little later than Aristotle, tells us in his "Argonauts," where the Greek heroes affrighted the overweening Bebryces who attacked them, "As shepherds or bee-keepers smoke a mighty swarm of bees in a rock; and these the while, all huddled in their hive, buzz round confusedly; and far from the rock they dart, smoked right through by the sooty fumes; so these men no longer abode steadfastly, but fled routed within Bebrycia, carrying the news of the death of Amycus." Virgil also compares the disorder among the Latins at the onset of Æneas to a swarm of bees driven forth by smoke : "Among the trembling citizens dissension arises; some press to dismantle the town, and open the gates to the Trojans, and drag the king himself to the ramparts. Others take up arms, and march on to defend the walls. "As when a shepherd hath traced out a swarm of bees enclosed in some harboring cleft, and filled their cells with bitter smoke; they within, alarmed for their affairs, in trepidation run hither and thither through the waxen camp, and with loud buzzing whet their rage: through their cells the black stench is rolled; then with faint murmur the caverns within resound; to the empty regions of air the smoke ascends."