52 HISTOBICAL NOTES ON BEE DISEASES. 



the liive and from the digestive tract of the workers. After the tliird 

 week, to each colony the feeding of ordinary unmedicated sirup 

 containing the spores of B. alvei was practiced. In each experimental 

 colony typical symptoms of the disease are reported to have been 

 observed in 10 days, and a well-estabhshed disease after 16 days. 



This experiment is offered as proof by Harrison that the feeding 

 of an antiseptic in the treatment of foul brood is beneficial, as it 

 hinders the germination of the spores of B. alvei. Tliis con&ms, 

 he states, the opinion of Lortet that the digestive canal of the nurse 

 bee is alone affected. Harrison reports the finding of B. alvei in the 

 digestive canal of adult bees taken from diseased colonies. 



After giving the results of his experiments, Harrison writes the 

 following conclusion: 



From the results of the above experiments I conclude that in certain cases the use 

 of chemicals is beneficial, but I would not say that other measures, such as starvation 

 and stamping out, should be abandoned as unnecessary or useless. Some of the drugs 

 used are of very little, if any, value; but others, such as formic acid and napthol B, 

 are undoubtedly very useful. In some cases, especially those in which the disease 

 is very virulent, it may be advisable to resort to more drastic measures. 



In another experiment he reports that symptoms of the disease 

 were produced after 14 days when B. alvei was fed. In these inocu- 

 lation experiments, cultures were used wliich had been recently 

 isolated in order that the virulence might not be diminished. He re- 

 ports one experiment, however, in which cultures were used wliich 

 had been transferred 30 times, with the result that several weeks 

 elapsed before the disease appeared and then only in a light form. 



One observes here that Harrison reports at least four cases in 

 wliich foul brood developed after feeding the spores of B. alvei in 

 sirup. These are of special interest inasmuch as many failures have 

 been made since that time to obtain the symptoms of foul brood by 

 similar inoculations. It would be well if Harrison could repeat these 

 feeding experiments for confirmation. 



The following summary contains some of the features of interest in 

 Harrison's paper: 



1. It has now been 11 years since the bulletin by Harrison, which 

 is here briefly reviewed, was pubhshed, and very naturally, as its 

 author no doubt will agree, it is in need of revision. 



2. He has given in the historical resum6 a brief account of the re- 

 sults and beliefs of a number of workers and writers on foul brood. 



3. He beheved that the two forms of foul brood described by some 

 authors were only two phases of the same disease, one form being 

 that phase of the disease in which the larvae die just before capping, 

 and the other one that phase of the same disease in wliich the brood 

 dies after capping. 



