CONFUSION REGARDING FOUL BROOD IN AMERICA. 33 



cell. There is very little odor from decaying larvine which have died from 

 this disease, and when an odor is noticeable it is not the " glue pot " odor of 

 American foul brood, but more nearly resembles that of soured dead brood. 

 This disease attacks drone and queen larvje very soon after the colony is 

 infected. It is, as a rule, much more infectious than American foul brood and 

 spreads more rapidly. On the other hand, it sometimes happens that the 

 disease will disappear of its own accord, a thing which the author never knew 

 to occur in a genuine case of American foul brood. European foul brood is 

 most destructive during the spring and early summer, often almost disap- 

 pearing in late summer and au.tumn. 



Confusion Regarding Foul Brood in America. 



Prof. J. J. Mackenzie in 1882 made what seems to have been a 

 short study of a bee disease as it appeared in Ontario, Canada, which 

 was known to the apiarists of that Province as fonl brood. He says 

 very little of the character of the species of bacteria with which he 

 was working, but he supposed that they were Bacillus alcei of 

 Cheyne. The author has examined samples of brood from Ontario 

 which have what, in the opinion of bee experts, is the most prevalent 

 disease, and has not found Bacillus alvei present in any one. The 

 bacteriological findings and the experience of bee-disease experts 

 show that American foul brood is the prevalent disease in that Prov- 

 ince. As the bee experts see the disease in the light of recent studies, 

 there is no authentic report of which we are aware that European 

 foul brood exists in Ontario. We can safely say, then, that Bacillus 

 alcei can not be isolated from larva^ taken from the prevalent disease 

 in the above-named Province. No difficulty is exprest on the part 

 of Professor Mackenzie in the isolation of Bacillus alrci from any 

 sample. The author is inclined to think, therefore, that this investi- 

 gator was in error as to the identity of his culture, and therefore his 

 conclusion can have little weight. 



The foul brood of bees received some attention also from Prof. 

 F. C. Harrison, of Ontario. In a paper of some length he gives a 

 description of a species of bacteria which he identified as Bacillus 

 alvei. The description which he gives and the accompanying photo- 

 micrographs (another plate which was given being after Cheyne 

 and correct for Bacillus alnei) might easily be that of a member of 

 a group represented by and described as Bacillus "^i" in Part I of 

 this paper. He also says that he has isolated Bacillus alvei from 

 diseased larva? from 13 States of the Union, ranging from New 

 York to California and from Michigan to Florida. European foul 

 brood has had a very limited geographical distribution, spreading 

 only recently from New York to adjoining States. In Professor 

 Harrison's work, too, there seems to have been no difficulty in iso- 

 lating Bacillus alvei from diseased brood diagnosed by bee inspectors 



