MACKENZIE, DECEMBEE, 1892. 39 



Believing that the digestive tract of the adult bee was the source 

 of infection for the larvae, he recommended, as the most rational 

 treatment, the use of an intestinal antiseptic in the form of sirup 

 medicated with beta naphthol, a drug which had been used for some 

 time as an intestinal antiseptic m the practice of human medicine. 

 The feeding of sirup medicated with beta nai)hthol (one-third gram 

 beta naphthol to 1,000 grams of sirup), he reports, was sufficient in his 

 experiment to free the intestinal tube of the bacteria causing the 

 trouble. This cure he supposed took place rapidly and completely 

 except when the bacteria had reached more completely the different 

 portions of the alimentaiy tract. 



One observes that the views entertained by Lortet on bee diseases 

 are quite different from those entertained at the present day con- 

 cerning these disorders. 



Mackenzie, Decembee, 1892. 



In 1892 Mackenzie read a paper ^ on Bacillus alvei which he had 

 prepared at the request of the Bee Keepers' Union of Canada. The 

 relation which was supposed by Mackenzie to exist between foul 

 brood and Bacillus alvei is shown in the following brief review of his 

 paper: 



He received from a bee keeper some samples of diseased brood for 

 examination. He began the study of these samples upon the assump- 

 tion that Cheshire and Cheyne had already found Bacillus alvei and 

 by moculation with pure cultures had demonstrated this organism to 

 be the cause of the disorder. By finding an organism which he 

 thought from its morphology and cultural characters was Bacillus 

 alvei, the conclusion was reached that the samples were foul brood, 

 the same as was found m other places. 



Labormg under the erroneous conception that Bacillus alvei is the 

 cause of the foul brood prevalent in Ontario, Mackenzie proceeded 

 with the study of the bacillus identified by him as Bacillus alvei. 

 The first task mentioned in his paper which was undertaken by him 

 was the solution of the question whether m the maldng of wax foun- 

 dation sufficient heat is applied to destroy the vitality of the foul- 

 brood spores. After receiving replies from different foundation manu- 

 facturers concerning the highest temperature reached in the process 

 and the time the wax was kept at this temperature, and after mak- 

 ing some determinations of the thermal death point of the spores of 

 the bacillus, he writes: "I am inclined to think there is little danger 

 from foul brood in that direction." He found by a cultural method 



I Mackenzie, J. J., B. A., December, 1892. The foul brood bacillus (B. alvei); its vitality and develop- 

 ment. Eighteenth Annual Report of the Ontario Agricultural College and Experimental Farm, pp. 

 267-273. 



This address is quoted in full in the Report of the Meeting of Inspectors of Apiaries, San Antonio, Tez., 

 Nov. 12, 1906. (Bulletin No. 70, Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1907, pp. 36-42.) 



