ILLIXOIS STATE BEE-KEEPEES' ASSOCIATIOX. 131 



will come out alive, or a large part of it will. You can put it in a cor- 

 rosive sublimate solution and leave it a month and it will come out 

 all right. You can put it in a carbolic acid solution and it does not feaze 

 it at all. 



With European foul brood, the disease which I am attempting to 

 discuss this afternoon, we have a very different condition. It does 

 not even take a boihng temperature to kill the bacteria. Any of the 

 mildest disinfectants will get rid of it, and it will die of its own accord 

 if left exposed to the air for a few weeks. 



Now the difference in the behavior of thse two different bacteria 

 is due to the fact that bacillus pluton does not forrn a spore, and con- 

 sequently it is very much more easily killed. It must live through the 

 winter and go from one colony to another in its active state. The 

 fact is that this organism is so easily killed in various ways that it 

 becomes a matter of wonder that the thing ever lives through a single 

 winter, and yet it does, as we know. So that the/tcharacteristics of 

 the bacteria are going to help us very materially in devising our treat- 

 ment. 



I mentioned a while ago that the diseased bacteria does not adhere 

 tightly to the celLwall, which makes it possible for the bees to clean 

 out European foul brood cells very easily, provided they are strong 

 enough to clean house well, and provided, if I can use a rather human 

 phrase, they haven't lost their spirit, the}' haven't lost their pep; so 

 if they want to do a thorough job of cleaning up it is possible for them 

 to get it out. , y 



The greatest trouble in all of our work on European foul brood 

 has been the fact that we have never been able to decide definitely 

 how it is spread from colony to colony. Now with American foul brood 

 we know very well how it is spread. We know it is by feeding and 

 b}'- robbing colonies that have the disease. With European foul broods, 

 on the other hand, the fact is very different, for while we know that it 

 can be produced by robbing or by feeding, because we can do it arti- 

 ficially, we do feel quite certain that that is not the ordinary method of 

 spreading; and the evidence, largely due to the efforts of Dr. C. C. 

 Miller of this State, is that nurse bees in passing from colony to colony 

 constantly are probably the culprits in the transmission of the disease. 



On account of the ease with which the bacteria causing this disease 

 are killed, it has never been found necessary to disinfect the hives 

 or the combs ov the brood frames, or the honey which is found in colonies 

 containing this disease. They can all be saved and used Avith impunity. 

 And one point I want to mention is that while it spreads very rapidly 

 as an epidemic in certain conditions, it is so easily combatted that 

 very frequentl}' does not even know that it is present. 



Now there are some preventive measures which must be taken, 

 which have been taken for years by bee-keepers having a full realiza- 

 tion of the fact that they were combating the disease by preventive 

 measures, and this is preeminently a disease which must be com- 

 bated in that way — it is not satisfactory to wait until the disease 

 appears and then proceed to clean it out, but the method of attack for 

 European foul brood is preeminently to provide conditions so that the 

 disease can never show its face in the apiary. 



