64 HISTORICAL NOTES ON BEE DISEASES. 



Bahr, 1904. 



A paper on the diseases of bees by Dr. L. Bahr/ of Denmark, 

 bears the date 1904. The author gives a brief review of the work 

 on bee diseases, together with some interesting observations by him- 

 self. In that portion of his paper describing his own observations 

 the following is recorded : 



A number of samples of brood have been sent to me from various parts of the country 

 (Denmark) having the following symptoms: Some of the diseased larvae were quite 

 small, while some of them are older — from 4 to 6 days. They never become ropy as 

 those of foul brood, but retain their form until they approach the consistency of gruel. 

 The color is whitish yellow but sometimes somewhat darker. In the gruel-like mass 

 of the diseased larvae I found a very small oval bacterium. 



Bahr mentions that the disease seems to be quite contagious. 

 From his description of the disease and from his bacteriological 

 findings there is a strong suggestion that the disease to wliich he 

 refers is European foul brood. Sufficient facts, however, are not 

 given to make this point at all positive. The author states that his 

 studies were not completed. 



BuRRi, October and November, 1904. 



We shall now consider a very excellent piece of work on foul brood 

 by Dr. Burri.^ In liis introductory remarks this author very aptly 

 refers to the need and value of a scientific study of foul brood. 



Burri began his work on foul brood apparently in the spring of 1903. 

 He observed that the foul odor wliich is emphasized so much in the 

 literature on ''foul brood" is not constant for all samples. Studying 

 the different samples he concluded that the ropiness of the decaying 

 larvaB and the tonguelike scales on the lower side wall of the cell were 

 characteristic of typical "foul brood," 



He also calls attention to the very large number of spores in the 

 decayed foul-brood larvae, and the absence of any veo;etative forms. 

 Cultures were made from these dead larval remains, but there was no 

 germination of the numerous spores. The occasional colony which 

 did appear he attributed to an accidental contamination with a 

 different species. Failing in liis attempt to obtain a growth of these 

 numerous spores, Burri came to the conclusion that they were a new 

 species that would not grow on the media ordinarily used in the 

 laboratory. He added to his medium some cooked healthy larvae 

 somewhat similar to the medium used by Lambotte, but with this 

 special medium he did not obtain the growth desired. Failing still 

 to obtain a growth of the species, he proceeded with the study of its 

 morphology as observed in the various stages of decay ol the brood. 



1 Bahr, L., 1904. Vore Bisygdomme. Foredrag holdt ved DBF's diskussionsm0de i Grejsdalen den 11 

 Septbr. 1904. Saertryk af Tidsskrift for Biavl Nr. 16 og 17. 



2 Burri, Dr. R., October and November, 1904. BakteriologischeForschuDgenuberdieFaulbrut. Schwei- 

 zerische Bienenzeitung, Nro. 10, pp. 335-342; Nro, 11, pp. 360-365, 



