WILSON, 1905. 67 



logical examination. This called for considarable work in diagnosis 

 in the laboratory. The results of the examinations showed that 

 European foul brood and American foul brood were the diseases of 

 bees which attracted most interest in the State. 



Bacillus alvei was found to jiossess a number of flagella arranged 

 ])eritrichic instead of one flagoUum at a pole, as Harrison at first 

 reported, but later accredited (Jowan with the statement (j). 56). 

 The fact that Bacillus alvei was supplied by more than one flagellum 

 had already been pointed out by Lambotte. 



Concerning Bacillus "X" (Bacillus larvse) the following is found: 



It is a slender rod with moderate motility having a tendency to form in chains. 

 The formation of spores and the arrangement of flagella ia somewhat similar to that 

 found in B. alvei. While B. alvei grows quite well on all the artificial media com- 

 monly ut^cd in the laboratory, the growth of Bacillus "X" ia not so easily obtained. 

 The medium which is most successful in the cultivation of this species is the one made 

 from the larvse of bees. Growth has been obtained with difficulty upon ordinary 

 agar and gelatin. 



The so-called palsy or paralysis received some attention, but after 

 beginning tliis work it was soon realized that before it could be done 

 satisfactorily it would be necessary to know somethuig of the normal 

 bacterial flora of the healthy bee. A brief study of the bacterial 

 species most frequently found within and upon the normal bee was 

 therefore made. 



White, June, 1905. 



About the time that this last report was published, a manuscript 

 embodying all of the work done on bee diseases at the New York 

 State Veterinary College for the State of New York was prepared 

 as a thesis.* Since the manuscript is available to but few, it will 

 not be reviewed here. With very few changes this manuscript was 

 published as Technical Series No. 14, Bureau of Entomology, United 

 States Department of Agriculture (p. 76). 



Wilson, 1905. 



Of course it is very frequently impossible on account of inadequate 

 descriptions to identify certain organisms. In the case of Bacillus alvei 

 there is but httle excuse for any mistake, since the description which 

 Cheyne has made is entirely adequate for this purpose. In this con- 

 nection a paper by Wilson^ is of interest. 



lie used a culture for demonstration purposes in a medical school, 

 which he isolated from the tonsils of a patient with suspected diph- 

 theria and identified it as B. alvei. He claims that B. alvei is fre- 



1 White, G. Franklin. June, 1905. The bacterial flora of the apiary with special reference to bee diseases. 

 Thesis, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 



* Wilson, Dr. R. J., 1905. Morphological characteristics of the Bacillus alvei. Proceedings of the New 

 York Pathological Society, vol. 5, pp. 79-81. 



