GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



make such a beautiful iustrutnent. it would 

 not tax him very hard to be able to make 

 the lenses. Xo one less than a mechanic of 

 the highest order could execute sucli a piece 

 of woik. 



The s(*cond evening, Mr. C. dreAV out his 

 microscope and his collection of objects, 

 nearly all of them mounted specimens of the 

 different parts of the bee. 1 thought I knew 

 something of the anatomical structure of 

 our pets, and I thought my lenses ;ind ap- 

 paratus were quite sufficient for showing 

 clearly tiieir tssues and theif structure; 

 but when I looked at the same specirhens 

 prepared by himself, with tlie light froui the 

 parabolic reflector, I must confess that I 

 never saw any thing quite so beautiful, so 

 distinct, and' so well defined. The most 

 minute i)oitions of the bee could be viewed 

 as easily as you would trace and examine 

 minulely the structuie of yOui- hand. At 

 the time we had our Microscopical Society 

 here in Medina, my instrument was counted 

 one of the best : but when I viewed the same 

 objects thiough my lenses — well, 1 just 

 wanted a belter microscope, to pvit it mildly. 



Perhaps all this micioscopic talk is not so 

 interesting to our readers who have never 

 had a taste for such things, or even an op- 

 portunity liad they desired it. and so I will 

 hasten to the microscopical appearance of 

 foul brood. 



HACILLUS ALVEI ; IS THE FOUL BKOOD OF 



AMERICA DIFFERENT IN ANY PAK- 



TICULAR FROM THE FOUL 



nUOOD OF EUROPE? 



Inasmuch as some authorities disagree as 

 to the real nature of foul brood, its source, 

 and method of cine, it has been suggested a 

 mimber of times that thefoul brood of Amer- 

 ica may be somewhat different from that 

 which is found in Europe. Again, it is assert- 

 ed that there is a mild and a malignant form 

 of the disease, and that apiaries may be at- 

 tacked by one or the other, or both." From 

 the descriptions which I have read, and the 

 symptoms which I have compared of foul 

 brood as found in the different countries, I 

 have been loth to believe that there are 

 several phases of the disease. On the 

 contrary, I felt pretty tolerably certain 

 that there was only one kind of foul l)rood, 

 and tliat that kind was as malignant as any 

 one could possibly expect. 



One of the things which I was ver> anx- 

 ious to see under Mr. Cowan's microscope 

 was the bacillus alvei, the scientific name 

 for the germs of foul brood. I w as particu- 

 larly desirous of seeing the microscopic 

 germs of the disease as it is in our own api- 

 ary, with a view of determining whether it 

 was similar or dissimilar from the l)acillus 

 alvei of Europe. We first examined some 

 prei>ared slides which Mr. Cowan brought 

 with him— a ,'.,-inch objective being u.sed for 

 the purpose. After having battled with this 

 microscopic enemy for so long, and never 

 having seen the actual thing itself, it was 

 with no little degree of pleasure that I 

 looked at the thing which has been talked 

 about so much and so much discussed. Had 

 r been working by myself with all the nec- 

 essary apparatus, I should not have been at 

 all certain ; but with Mr. (V)wan right [tliere 



to tell me that what I was looking at was 

 really the bacillus alvei. I felt satisfied, in- 

 tensely so, for once in my life. Perhaps 

 some of the readers may imagine that these 

 germs possess form— have legs, eyes, and all 

 that sort of thing. If they do, I must say 

 they are very greatly mistaken. On the 

 contrary, the bacillei have the appearance 

 of a lot of miniature walking-sticks lying to- 

 gether here and there in the field of view . 

 When I say '• miniature," I mean they were 

 small, or appeared small, even when magni- 

 lied oOdO diameters. In the tield of the mi- 

 croscope, at this power, as nearly as 1 could 

 recollect, they appeared to be about an 

 eighth of aninch long, and about as large 

 around as a human hair. I am sorry we 

 have not a good engraving representing 

 them, but we hope before many days to give 

 our readers a view of these peculiar ■' ani- 

 miles."' Having examined the bacillus alvei 

 of ?]urope to my heart's content, I hunted 

 up a frame of foiil brood, placed it in a close 

 box. and piesented it to Mr. Cowan. He 

 examined the frame as well as the maturat- 

 ed mass in the cells, and pronounced it to 

 be the same as he had seen and experienced 

 in his own apiary, as M^ell as in the apiaries 

 of others. 



For the benefit of our readers interested 

 in microscopy, I will give Mr. Cowan's mo- 

 dus operandi of preparing a specimen of 

 f(uil brood, to be examined under the micro- 

 scope. 



He first called for a clean slide (a slip of 

 glass one inch by three inches), and also for 

 a very thin cover glass, as thin as this pa- 

 per. These 1 supplied him witli. He then 

 dipped the point of his penknife into a dis- 

 eased cell. dre\V it out. and placed it in the 

 center of the glass slide. After spreading it 

 he placed the glass cover over it and pressed 

 it gently, in order to get all the excess of 

 matter out at the sides. To make the bacil- 

 lus alvei show more plainly, he next placed 

 a drop of aniline ink at the edge of the cov- 

 eied glass — an operation called '• staining." 

 The ink, by capillary attraction, soon 

 spread all through luider the cover glass. 

 The specimen as thus prepared was placed 

 under his ,'3 immersion lens. Examination 

 showed that the genus which we saw were 

 bacillus alvei, exactly like those we had just 

 seen in a jnepared specimen of foul biood 

 from Emope. j\lr. Cowan then prepared 

 other slides in the manner I have described, 

 and in all cases the bacillus alvei were seen. 



I can scarcely think there is any possible 

 doulit but that we have the very same foul 

 brood that is found in Europe ; and all the 

 talk that we have had. to the effect that we 

 have one form of foul brood and the Euro- 

 l)eans another, is nonsense. 



GOOD-I5Y 1 



Before closing, there are many more things 

 I should like to say about Mr. Cowan and 

 his visit. I will say this much, however: 

 For one possessed of so many attainments, 

 he isexceedmgly modest. I don't recollect that 

 he referred to himself oi- to his accomplish- 

 ments, excejit in answei- to direct ()uestions ; 

 and even then he said as little as Yankee in- 

 quisitiveness would permit. 

 .Inst as he was stei)i)ing aboard the train. 



