80 HISTORICAL NOTES ON BEE DISEASES. 



its normal proportions. This distension, however, is not by any means constant, 

 and was chiefly noticed in the case of the native bee; in the half-breed with the 

 Italian bee, with its longer and slightly more slender abdomen, no unusual distension 

 could be observed. 



The disease appears to differ from what is usually termed "bee-paralysis," in that 

 the infected individuals do not exhibit the characteristic black and shiny appear- 

 ance, and neither I myself, nor any bee keepers who have paid attention to the dis- 

 ease, have observed the ciu-ious trembling motion of the limbs and body which is 

 regarded as a symptom of that disease. 



The disease appears to be entirely confined to the adult bees, the brood remaining 

 unaffected. I have conducted a microscopical examination of a large number of 

 eggs, larvae at all stages of development, and pupse, and have failed to detect any- 

 thing of a pathological nature among the brood. All had the characteristic pearly 

 white appearance of healthy specimens although belonging to a badly infected hive. 

 The eggs were imdergoing development and showed not the slightest trace of discol- 

 oration or shriveling, the larvae were healthy in every way and were coiled up in 

 their normal attitude, and nothing wrong could be detected with the pupae or the 

 newly hatched bees. 



In describing the "Nature of the disease" Imms writes in part as 

 follows : 



The disease is eminently one of the digestive system and might be described as 

 being a condition of enlargement of the hind intestine. Over 150 diseased bees 

 have now been examined and all have been found to exhibit the same symptoms. 



The author states that the bacteriological work on the disease was 

 in progress. The work wliich had already been done demonstrated 

 the presence of a large number of bacterial rods. No conclusion was 

 reached as to the cause of the disease, nor had any remedy been found 

 in the treatment that was successful in the hands of all bee keepers. 



Some of the more important points in the paper might be summa- 

 rized as follows: 



1 . The disease, so far as was determined, was of recent origin. 



2. The disorder described seemed to be very rapidly fatal to adult 

 bees. The brood seemed to be unaffected. 



3. To Imms the trouble seemed to be neither d3^sentery nor the 

 so-called paralysis. 



4. No conclusion was reached as to the cause of the disorder. 



5. No treatment was demonstrated to be successful. 



White, July 29, 1907. 



On July 29, 1907, there was issued a circular* briefly describing 

 some experiments which demonstrated for the first time the cause of 

 American foul brood. Although spores had been observed in very 

 large numbers in the larvse dead of this disease, no satisfactory 

 medium had yet been devised by which pure cultures could be 

 obtained that were suitable for purposes of experimental inoculations. 



» White, G. Franklin, July 29, 1907. The cause of American foul brood. U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture, Bureau of Entomology, Circular No. 94. Pp. 4. 



