406 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 9, 1904. 





Contributed Articles 





Putting Foundation into Sections. 



BV W'M. MUTH-RASMUSSEN. 



ON page 313, " Ohio " asks how to put foundation in sec- 

 tions so that it will stay. Dr. Miller's answer does not 

 seem, to me, quite to fill the bill. Perhaps I can help 

 " Ohio " by giving- my way of doing it. 



I use full sheets and put them in with a Daisy founda- 

 tion fastener, which is of the old style, where the front part 

 extends about i'z inches above the block, against which the 

 foundation rests, and is shaped as an arch or half circle. 

 (According to pictures in late catalogs, this arch top is cut 

 away, down to the block.) I gouge a finger-hole (similar to 

 the hand-hole in the end of a shipping-case) in the arched 

 top, running from within '4 inch of the top of the arch and 

 down to the block. The hole is one inch wide and j's inch 

 deep. 



Now, as soon as the foundation drops from the hot steel 

 plate to the wood of the section, I reach in through the 

 finger-hole with the middle finger of the left hand, and bend 

 the finger under the bottom (now upper part) of the section. 

 Then, with the point of the thumb on the opposite (front) 

 side I remove the section from the fastener, the foundation 

 being firmly supported between the thumb and finger. 

 While still holding the section in this position (upside 

 down), I grasp the foundation with the thumb and middle 

 finger of the right hand and give it a light pull towards the 

 wood at two places, namely, opposite the ends of the insets 

 in the section. This thickens the wax at the line of attach- 

 ment, so that it spreads a little to both sides on the wood. 

 As soon as this is done, I turn the section over and set it 

 aside. It will not do to pull at the middle of the line of at- 

 tachment, as this has a tendency to twist the foundation. 



If the foundation does not melt quickly enough to suit 

 me, as sometimes happens in cool weather, or when the 

 foundation is damp (I make my own), I place the edge of 

 the nail on the index finger of the left hand against the 

 foundation and bear downward, so that the foundation will 

 press on the hot plate with more than its own weight. This 

 accelerates the melting. 



Care must be taken that the foundation does not swing, 

 while the attachment is still warm. Swinging stretches 

 and thins, and therefore weakens, the attachment. A slight 

 vibration of the loose (lower) end of the sheet does no harm, 

 but there must positively be no motion where the founda- 

 tion joins the wood. 



I think this will make it secure enough to move on a 

 wagon without break-down ; but if it should not be found 

 sufficient, let "Ohio" try the following in addition to the 

 preceding : Just before putting the foundation on the hot 

 plate, bend the foundation a little, so that the attachment 

 will be on a curve instead of a straight line. If otherwise 

 rightly done, this will effectually prevent the foundation 

 from swinging, and nothing but a heavy jar will break it 

 loose. Inyo Co., Calif. 



Formaldehyde Alone Not a Disinfectant. 



BY J. E. JOHNSON. 



ON page 249, Mr. Hasty says that I am giving the readers 

 of the American Bee Journal some well-ripened non- 

 1 sense in advocating the use of oxygen as well as for- 

 maldehyde in killing germs and spores of foul brood. It 

 would certainly be valuable information if Mr. Hasty would 

 explain why. Also, how any gas affects the life of germs 

 and spores. 



All bacteria are vegetable, not animal, and do not live 

 from compounds as do animals, and are not affected by any 

 treatment as is animal life. These organisms are composed 

 of protoplasm, paraplasm, etc., incased in a membrane of 

 such resisting qualities that the life of the organism is safe 

 from gas treatment. Oxygen of itself is a bactericide, and 

 any germ is destroyed by oxygen alone if the cell-membrane 

 is ruptured. Different acids have the power to rupture or 

 eat through that cell, as it were, and for that reason they 

 are bactericides. The gas of itself does not affect germs. 



because it can not penetrate the cell-membrane. Air itself 

 is very penetrating, and would kill the life of the germ only 

 for that membrane. 



Formaldehyde is fully conceded to be the most effectual 

 gas disinfectant known to medical science, that is, for all 

 vegetable germs. But, why ? I won't ask the readers to 

 take my word for it alone, but Prof. George Newman, M. D., 

 F. R. S., Demonstrator of Bacteriology in King's College, 

 London, who is probably as good authority as can be found 

 on this subject, says in his excellent work on bacteria, that 

 whether formaldehyde is used in the form of formalin or 

 paraform, it is effective because in the air it oxidizes into 

 formic acid, hence it is effective. Other high authority cor- 

 roborates this, but to get further evidence I wrote Prof. 

 Hopkins, chief in chemistry in the Agricultural College at 

 Urbana, 111., and the following are his words in reply : 



"Replying to your favor of April 6,1 beg to say that 

 oxygen is absohclely necessary to the changing of formalde- 

 hyde into formic acid." 



He also says that experiments conducted by Prof. Bur- 

 rill have shown that formaldehyde is not effective without 

 moisture. 



Now, if formic acid is the real cause of disinfection, 

 and formaldehyde is only one of the elements consumed 

 in forming this acid, is it not just as necessary to have the 

 one element as the other? Not only so, but the oxygen can 

 not possibly unite with any other element to produce any 

 other product without expense to itself, so it certainly is 

 just as necessary to have a constant incoming of fresh oxy- 

 gen into a tank as it is to have a continual flow of gas. 



Furthermore, formaldehyde gas is all gas, but air is 

 only 1-5 oxygen, so the percent of oxygen in an air-tight 

 tank would be small indeed. Now we know it is a hard mat- 

 ter to get any tank entirely air-tight, but if a tank is left 

 open at the top, letting in gas at the bottom until gas comes 

 out strong at the top, then closing air-tight, how much 

 oxygen have you in the tank ? Only 1-5 of the air in the 

 tank being oxygen, and with a constant flow of gas in, or 

 trying to get in, you would prevent more air from coming 

 in. I say, and I'll stay by it until shown differently, that the 

 principal reason people have not been successful in disin- 

 fecting hives and combs is simply because they have 

 thought formaldehyde a disinfectant of itself, which it is 

 not, and they have failed to let in the other agent — oxygen 

 — in sufficient proportion to get best results. 



I think that if cotton was soaked in formalin and placed 

 in an empty hive-body, then three or four hive-bodies of 

 infected combs placed above, then a cover placed on top 

 so that all would be tight excepting little cracks between 

 each body, it would be effective ; but I want also to empha- 

 size that combs must be moist and ivarni, and in order to 

 penetrate into the wax or cocoon of wax or cell, give it time. 



I talked with a very celebrated physician a few days 

 ago, who has had many cases of smallpox, diphtheria and 

 scarlet fever, and I asked him if he used formalin in dis- 

 infecting rooms. He answered, "Always." I asked how he 

 used it. He preferred merely to saturate a sheet in forma- 

 lin and hang in the room, and close the doors, etc., and 

 not once has he failed to get good results. We well know 

 that any dwelling-room will let in plenty of air, and yet 

 thousands of such rooms are disinfected, and very seldom 

 any failure. 



Yes, it certainly is nonsense to say a tank must be air- 

 tight in order to disinfect with any gas, as sulphurous gas 

 — the second best disinfectant — is effective because it unites 

 with the moisture of the air and produces sulphurous acid, 

 and thus disinfects. The only reason that formalin may 

 not be eflective is because spores may be imbedded in wax. 

 But when we take into consideration that both air and gas 

 will penetrate very solid substances, if given time, I think 

 it very probable that where any germ can live, both the gas 

 and oxygen will reach them if given time. 



If it is not presuming too much I want to make a few 

 suggestions. I have given in former articles evidences that 

 it is reasonable to expect that formaldehyde may be applied 

 strong enough in a hive of live bees to kill germs of disease . 

 and not injure the bees. Let us take a reasonably strong 

 colony of bees in the spring, but somewhat affected with 

 foul brood. If a good honey-flow is at hand, and the 

 weather is nice and warm, what is the result ? In a few 

 weeks the disease has almost disapeared of itself. In fact, 

 many bee-keepers who have foul brood among their bees 

 know that a pretty strong colony, altliough diseased to a 

 considerable extent, will almost cure themselves of the dis- 

 ease, but the undeveloped spores are there, and the disease 

 will reappear when conditions become more favorable to the 

 growth of disease. Why is this ? I think this is simply be- 



