118 Forty-ninth Report on the State Museum 



The Experiments not Conclusive. 



The experiments were not deemed conclusive by Prof. Webster, and it 

 is intended to continue them another year. 



That the bodies of crushed bees that had visited blossoms sprayed with 

 arsenic should disclose to chemical tests the presence of arsenic is not at 

 all strange. Even an ammoniacal bath could not have removed every 

 trace of arsenic from the surface of their bodies. 



Experiments of Professor Cook. 

 Prof. A. J. Cook, the distinguished apiarist of the Michigan State 

 Agricultural College, makes the positive assertion that honey bees are 

 killed in large numbers through the arsenical spraying of fruit trees in 

 blossom, but he has not proven the assertion. Experiments instituted by 

 him in which bees fed on sweetened water poisoned by arsenic — i pound 

 to 200 gallons — were killed, are claimed by him as decisive upon the 

 question under consideration. How entirely unwarranted the conclusion. 

 The experiment had no bearing upon the question at issue. No one 

 could have doubted that imbibing strongly poisoned syrup would be fatal 

 to honey bees. Furthermore, in his experiment (see Report of the 

 Michigan Board of Agriculture for 1891) the bees were fed in his labora- 

 tory, within a small cage. Bees are known to die very soon in confine- 

 ment, even without an arsenical diet (Howard, in Insect Life, vol. v, 

 .1892, p. 123). 



Examinations that would be Satisfactory. 



A simple method can be resorted to by which the question could 

 be definitely and effectually settled. It is this : Confine a hive of 

 healthy bees to blossoms sprayed with Paris green, and when death 

 speedily follows, have examination of their stomachs made by experts 

 testing for arsenic. If it is found therein, then it maybe accepted as the 

 cause of their death. Examination of stomachs of bees collected pro- 

 miscuously would not be satisfactory, for a statement was made at a 

 recent bee-keepers' convention in Albany that honey bees had been seen 

 eagerly feeding on the liquid resting on the leaves of a potato patch 

 soon after it had been arsenically sprayed, and it was thought to have 

 caused the death of many bees. 



Up to the present, so far as I know, no examination such as above 

 suggested has been made. I hope that Prof. Webster will undertake it^ 

 in the progress of his experiments the coming season. 



