REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. “ 173 
spread and persistently perpetuated. Continued observation showed that in those 
colonies where the largest quantity of pollen was being gathered the disease quickly 
assumed the malignant form, even when the quantity of brood was not greater than 
that being reared in other colonies where but little pollen was being gathered and 
in which the disease was far less virulent ; and in this latter kind, where little pol- 
len was being gathered, the contagion yielded most readily to treatment. But what 
seemed more to the point was, that from those colonies from which the combs con- 
taining pollen were removed and a suitable substitute furnished in the hive, thus 
avoiding the necessity for bringing supplies from the fields, fhe disorder was cured 
and the colony speedily regained their normal condition. The fact that queen 
larvee seldom die from this contagion, taken in connection with what we know to 
be true concerning the character of their food, is significant, namely, that it is 
wholly composed of digested material, pollen grains being rarely found therein, and 
then as if present by accident and not by design, seems to justify the conclusion 
that the absence of pollen accounts for the absence of bacilli; while on the con- 
trary the food of worker larvee, secreted in excessive quantity and deposited in 
haste, occasional grains of pollen being dropped and no reason for their removal 
existing, the bacilli finding congenial cultures, multiply apace ; and if perchance 
the larve escape infection, as is commonly the case until near the time of wean- 
ing, then live pollen being supplied, speedy and complete ruin results. Moreover, 
few if any bacilli are to be found in the chyle stomach cf an adult queen at the 
head of a stricken colony, subsisted, as she must be, almost entirely upon secreted 
food produced by the worker bees: while in the chyle stomach of the worker, 
which partakes freely of pollen, they are present in quantity, and in fact line the 
whole intestinal tract. 
The evidence presented in support of this pollen theory of the means of introduc- 
ing and spreading this contagion is circumstantial, still it is component ; and if it 
fails to reveal the true source of infection, the fact that the consumption of such 
live pollen as is obtained from the fields during the prevalence of this disease, or 
such old pollen as is stored in cells in which it may have molded or rotted and be- 
come a possible source of infection, aggravates the disease and makes it more per- 
sistent, and the fact that if the old pollen be removed from the hive and artificial 
pollen be substituted the malignant and persistent characteristics disappear, and 
that the contagion then readily yields to suitable treatment, is settled beyond ques- 
tion. 
While it istrue that queen bees have less to fear from infection in the larval 
stage, it is also true that queens reared in infested colonies are commonly worth- 
less. Of twenty-five queens so reared in one apiary and successfully established at 
the head of as many colonies, not one survived the period of hibernation. In case 
the contagion does not assume the acute form in the larvz it may localize and be- 
come chronic, and so, the baciilus of disease being as unnatural as disease itself, 
both worker and queen may live on for weeks and months, and the queen, with 
both life and death within her, transmitting the possibilities of both. Mr. Cheshire 
has counted as many as nine bacilli in a single egg, a discovery full of signiticance 
when striving to account for the spread of disease. Itis but natural that this con- 
tagion, being a disease of the blood, should find congenial and Juxuriant feeding- 
ground among the most delicate and highly organized glands and tubes of the 
ovaries. 
We may reason thus: The, bee-pap furnished to the queen larva, the protoplastic 
egg-food, copiously furnished to the queen during the breeding season, is con- 
tinuous and passes from cell to cell. The germ cell of bacillus contributed to the 
organism of the queen in larval or in egg-food, borne along through the digestive 
and circulatory system, passes within the ovarian tubes and from thence into the 
nascent egg-cell, and once within the yolk is ready to contend for supremacy 
against the spermatozoid soon to be introduced. But the strife is unequal, and in- 
stead of the differentiating principle determining the form, function, and instinct 
of a new creature appointed to long life and service, the bacillus. finding the en- 
vironment suited to multiplication, sterilizes the blood and riddies the tissues and 
viscera. 
The remedy which I have found to be aspecific—by the use of which I have cured 
hundreds of cases, many of which seemed hopelessy incurable, without failure and 
without a return of the contagion, except in the case of two colonies of black bees, 
where the disease reappeared in a form so mild that each colony was speedily cured, 
- each one casting a swarm and making a fair amount of surplus honey—is prepared 
and applied substantiaily as directed in my last annual report, 
In 3 pints of warm soit water dissolve 1 pint of dairy salt. Add 1 pint of water, 
boiling hot, in which has been dissolved four tablespoonsful of bicarbonate of soda. 
Dissolve one-quarter ounce of pure salicylic acid (the crystal) in 1 ounce of alcohol. 
