94 MEETING OF INSPECTORS OF APIARIES. 
but that a small portion escaped. Some new “bees emerged, but in too small 
numbers to supply the daily losses.’ Thus a hive attacked by this scourge will 
perish from scarcity of population. At first it was not noticed that this disease 
was epidemic, and the hives emptied by death of the bees were filled with fresh 
swarms, and these contracted the same disease and perished. Yet another 
mistake was made. The remains of the hives that were lost were taken into the 
streets of the town to expose them to the sun in order to extract all the wax, 
and the bees from the neighborhood sucked up the honey, caught the disease, 
and communicated it to other hives, and all, without exception, perished in a 
short time. The epidemic having reached the island spread everywhere, and 
the mortality among the bees was general, either from eating infected honey, or 
from stopping up the infected combs, or from the bees nourishing their brood 
on infected honey. 
Della Rocea criticises Schirach’s statement regarding the misplacement of 
the larvee by the queen as a cause of the disease, because “ everybody knows 
that the queen has nothing else to do but deposit eggs. These are then cared 
for and nourished by the bees; and when the larva is nearly ready to change 
into the pupa, the bees close the cell, and every position which is given the larva 
depends on their good pleasure and not on the queen’s.”’ Della Rocca himself 
thinks that ‘“‘some pestilential blight had without doubt corrupted the quality 
of the honey and the dust from the anthers,” and recommends “ burning every- 
thing without pity, as there is no other resource when the disease is well 
established, as the pest is without doubt the most terrible in the natural history 
of bees.” 
Neither Wildman (Treatise on the Management of Bees, London, 1796), Keys 
(Ancient Beemasters Farewell, London, 1796, Woolridge), Needham (Brussels 
Memoirs, Vol. II, 1780, Rhein), Reaumur (Memoirs pour Servir a l’Histoire 
Naturelle des Insectes, T. V., p. 1784), and other authors about the same time 
(latter end of the eighteenth century) mention this disease. 
Bevan (The Honey Bee, London, 1827) names the disease * pestilence,” and 
also quotes Schirach’s name, “foul brood,’ and says regarding it that the 
“pestilence has been attributed to the residence of dead larvze in the cells, 
from a careless deposition of ova by the queen. * * * It has also been 
attributed to cold and bad nursing; that is, feeding with unwholesome food.” 
Nothing further of note appears in bee literature till the year 1860, when 
Doctor Leuckhart (Bienen Zeitung, Hichstadt, 1860, p, 282) writes that he was 
formerly of the opinion that foul brood was caused by the same fungus 
(Panhistophyton ovatum) which is noticed in a disease of the silkworm, but 
now, after observation and experiment, is quite certain that the disease is 
caused by neither vegetable nor animal parasite. He also notes that the term 
“foul brood” is applied to a number of diseases affecting bees. 
Molitor Muhlfeld (Bienen Zeitung, Eichstadt, 1868, p. 95) recognizes two 
forms, one contagious and the other not contagious, and thinks that the only 
cause of contagious foul brood is a fly (Jehneuwmon apium mellificarium) which 
lays its eggs on the young larvee of the bee. 
A discovery of note was Preuss’s (Bienen Zeitung, 1868, p. 225), in 1868. He 
contradicts Muhlfeld’s statement about the fly, and states that foul-brood cells 
can be detected by the sunken cap. With a microscope magnifying 600 diam- 
eters he found small, dust-like bodies, with a diameter of =}, mm., belonging to 
the genus Cryptococcus (WKutzig), and called the specific form alvearis, likened 
it to the fermentation fungus (Cryptococcus fermentum), and thought that the 
last germ gained access to the young bee and changed to Cryptococcus alvearis. 
He notices that many experts lay the cause of the disease to fermenting food, 
but the larve are easily contaminated by the fermentation fungus, which is 
always present in the air. He also mentipns the enormous rapidity with which 
