62 



Journal of Agiicnltiire. 



[lo Jan., 1910, 



KEPORT ON ANALYSIS OF HONEYS, SUBMITTED BY Mr. R. BEUHNE. 



The above described samples of honey were talven from the apiaries of the following bee-keepers : — 



1. Mr. Metcalfe 



2. Mr. Freeman 



3. Mr. O'Rourke 



4. Mr." Hair 



5. Mr. Best 



6. Mr. Morgan 



7. Mr. Holden 



Locality. 

 Great Western 



DadswelLs 

 Noradjuha 

 Great Western 

 Dadswells 

 Black Range 



Source. 

 Eucalyptus leuco.xylon 



Autumn lionev 



Eucalypts and Honeysuckle 



II.— A DISEASE AFFECTING EUROPEAN AND VICTORIAN 



BEES. 



R. Bcuhne, President of the Victorian Apiarists' Association, and 

 0. Willgerodt. Commonnealtli Customs Laboratory, Victoria. 



At a meeting of Apiarists* held in Weis.senfels on the 9th of August 

 last, Dr. Zander of Erlangen drew attention to a peculiar disease, which, 

 in recent years, has created an enorrnous havoc amongst bees. The disease is 

 a malignant type of dvsenterv, cau.sed by the invasion of the digestive tracts 

 of the bee by a unicellar animal para.site of oval shape, which multiplies 

 with great rapidity and invades the intestinal cells in such numbers that 

 practically nothing of the structure of the intestinil wall can be recognised 

 under the microscope. Dr Zander disco\"ered the above organism during 

 1907, in the intestines of i)ees suffering from malignant dysentery and 

 believes that it is a member of the No.sema family, belonging to the group 

 of Microsporidise. The name "malignant dysentery'' is used here to 

 di.stinguish this disea.se from a comparatively harmless malady called 

 dysentery, well known to bee-keepers, to which bees are sometimes subject 

 during spring time. Several Xosema species are known occurring as para- 

 sites in different animals. One of the best known is Xosema hombycis 

 which invades the silk worm and produces a disea.se known as " Pebrine." 

 This disease is said to have caused the French silk industry los.ses, amount- 

 ing to more than ^^40,000, 000 up to the year 1867. The discovery by 

 Pasteur of a successful method of overcoming this disease has proved of 

 inestimable value to the world's silk industrx . No means are at present 

 available to enable one to decide with certainty, whether the No.sema found 

 in the bee is identical with any classified species. The name " Nosema 

 afis'" has been given to it bv its di.scoverer in concurrence with Prof. 

 Doflein (Munich) one of the best known investigators of this class of 

 organism. 



M'l'ichemr Bieii^n-Zuturi'j, Sept., 1313. 196-2)4. 



