142 EIGHTEEXTII ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



The President. — I have a number of programs of the National 

 Bee-Keepers' Association, which has its first session this evening 

 in this room. All of the members of the Chicago Northwestern Bee- 

 Keepers' Association will be invited to attend, I preseume, by the 

 officers. We will have ten minutes intermission. In the mean time, 

 we should be very glad to have your names here for the Secretary if 

 you wish to join the Chicago Northwestern Association. 



Recess. 



The President. — I am sure we all appreciated Dr. Phillip's 

 talk. He is out just at present, but he is coming back after a while, and 

 I know that if any members here would like to ask him questions, if 

 you will just get your c[uestions ready, when he comes in, after Miss 

 Fowls' paper or talk, we will have him answer those questions. I 

 think this is a very important topic, the European foul brood. We also 

 have a question here regarding American foul brood, perhaps he will 

 answer that. I am sure he can do it better than a good many .of the 

 rest of us can. 



The next on the program is Miss lona Fowls. The subject is 

 "The Disappearing Disease." Miss Fowls. (Applause.) 



THE DISAPPEARING DISEASE. 



(Miss lona FoicJs, Medina, Ohio.) 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I think that if the bee- 

 keepers in the past had taken the trouble to post themselves con- 

 cerning foul brood before it actually appeared in their own apiaries, 

 there would not l)e to-day nearty as much foul brood in the United 

 States as there is. And this same indifference that has been shown 

 toward foul Ijrood, waiting until it struck an apiary before anything 

 has been attempted, before people have attempted to learn anything 

 about it, this same characteristic is even more striking in connection 

 with the disappearing disease. Even last year there was one of the 

 best bee-keepers in New York State, I think, that lost practically all 

 his bees by foul brood, and now he has learned enough about it so 

 that he has built up a new apiary, and probably will be prepared next 

 time. 



In the case of the disappearing disease every one has taken that 

 same attitude. They pay no attention to it until it begins to strike 

 them in the pocket book, and then they take notice. And I shall have 

 to admit that the same thing was true when it struck our yards. I 

 don't mean the Root yards. I mean the Fowls yards at Oberlin. 



When we first noticed that we had it, that night I sat up until the 

 wee sma' hours reading all I could possiljly find al^out Isle of Wight and 

 paralysis and disappearing disease, mysterious 'disease, anything that 

 I thpught might possibly have a bearing on the subject, and the most 

 that I found out was that nobody knew much of anything about those 

 diseases. I knew that there had been numerous instances of cases 

 of supposed poisoning in which the owner was certain that there was 

 no poison present. And then I saw various allusions to strange, peculiar 

 mal^lies without any attempted name. And then later on they began 

 to call it the disappearing disease, and although it had taken toll of 



