194 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 9 



sumably within 48 hours after removal from the hive. Mr. France 

 wrote: "I have diagnosed the condition as American and European 

 foulbrood both in the same comb." There were two pieces of comb 

 each from a different colony. On opening these specimens of brood and 

 before a miscroscopic or bacteriological examination, a tentative gross 

 diagnosis of European foulbrood was made. On examining microscop- 

 ically no evidence of either Bacillus pluton or Bacillus alvei could be 

 found but spores of apparently Bacillus larvce were present in abundance. 

 On making bacteriological cultures the diagnosis of American foulbrood 

 was confirmed instead of the tentative gross diagnosis of European 

 foulbrood. No one could be blamed for making the mistake of diag- 

 nosing in the gross these two samples as European foulbrood. The 

 affected larvse in great number were young — about the age at which 

 European foulbrood is seen in most of the samples received for diag- 

 nosis. Moreover, the larvss presented the same yellow, grey and brown 

 shades usually seen in European foulbrood and exhibited furthermore 

 that peculiar appearance which the writer has described as melted, the 

 larvse presenting a moist collapsed mass as though gradually melting 

 away under the influence of heat. In fact, there was practically noth- 

 ing in the specimen to indicate by sight any other condition than 

 the familiar appearance of many of the cases of European foulbrood. 

 However, on thrusting the forceps, used in examining suspected brood, 

 into the dead larvse, it was noted that the consistency of the larvse was 

 more like American foulbrood than European foulbrood. These 

 larvse, as small as they were, showed an inclination to rope out more 

 than would be expected from larvse affected with European foulbrood 

 and the larval mass was viscid in contradistinction to the more friable 

 condition of European foulbrood larvte. On continuing the exami- 

 nation, older larvse, still more distinctly viscid, were found. More- 

 over, the cappings of most of the affected larvse in both pieces of comb 

 were sunken and only a few perforated cappings were found. How- 

 ever, neither sunken nor perforated cappings can be considered of any 

 great value, both apparently being accidental features. Perforated 

 cappings, especially, are liable to be found wherever pupse die in sealed 

 cells from any cause. Thus it will be seen that this specimen of dis- 

 eased bee brood does not fit in well with the described condition ap- 

 plicable to either American foulbrood or European foulbrood for most 

 cases. It is likely that, if this specimen could have been seen after the 

 larvse had formed the scale, differentiation would have been easy. 

 Unfortunately, the comb was destroyed and later observations could 

 not be made. 



Consideration of Scales 

 This brings us to a consideration of the scales of the infectious brood 

 diseases, especially those of American foulbrood and European foul- 



