May 7, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



293 



them was covered with honey. The postmaster said to me, 

 " I want to show you something-. Here are a wliolc lot of 

 pictures and letters in the mail all botched up witli honey, 

 lam going to hold you for damages." I never before got 

 queen-cages with the surface of the cages covered with 

 honey. I went up and took the queens out and put them 

 into clean cages, and put the other cages into the stove. I 

 went down next day and paid the bill, and the postmaster 

 said, "What do you think I found stuck in the bottom of 

 that mail-bag ? A box of honey 1" Being a trapper's son, I 

 got onto the back-track right away. I went to where the 

 letter was addressed, and asked, "Did you get a box of 

 honey?" She replied, " I got a letter from Annie, saying 

 that she had sent me a box." " Where is Annie ?" "Over 

 in Minnesota." " What town is she in ?" I finally got her 

 address, and found from whom she bought the honey, and 

 his bees had foul brood, so I took no chance on introducing 

 the queens. There was a chance of ray healthy queen-bees 

 becoming diseased through that honey put in the mail-bag. 



Dr. Miller — It is suggested here that it is barely pos- 

 sible that some one might misunderstand you. You have 

 emphasized verystrougly the danger of using an old cage, 

 but you have said nothing about the bees. Would you be 

 careful to transfer the bees with the queen ? 



Mr. France — It has been practiced, but those bees have 

 fulfilled their mission for which they were sent, being good 

 escorts of the queen. They have safely delivered their 

 queen, and there is a great deal of danger lying in the 

 honey-sacs of those bees, and they might as well be put 

 into the stove with the old cage. 



A Member — Is it necessary to burn anything to cure 

 foul brood ? 



Mr. France — No, but it is often desirable economy. 



A Member — Is there any danger of buying or using 

 combs from strangers ? 



Mr. France — There have been many cases in Wisconsin 

 where that was the means of contracting disease. 



A Member — Is there any danger of buying second-hand 

 honey-cans, barrels, or other packages, that have once had 

 honey in them ? 



Mr. France — Yes ; and I want to say that second-hand 

 goods of any kind are poor things to store honey in. 



A Member — Supposing the honey-comb is filled with 

 honey, and it has had disease in it, will those disease-germs 

 propagate themselves in the honey 7 



Mr. France — No, not until that honey has been trans- 

 ferred in the comb. 



A Member — Will pickled brood or black brood produce 

 foul brood ? 



Mr. France — I have never known it to do so. They are 

 distinct and separate germs. Small-pox will not produce 

 diphtheria or scarlet fever. 



Mr. Moore — What causes foul brood in the beginning ? 



Mr. France — I know of a case where we have no posi- 

 tive proof of its being contagious. As to the real cause of 

 what produced it I am unable to say, because in almost 

 every case under my own observation I could trace it back 

 to something else. I know this much, foul brood was 

 brought here from Europe, and here from one State to 

 another until it is a wonder to me now there is any place 

 that is not occupied with the disease. 



A Member — Is there any authentication of foul brood 

 coming from anything but foul brood ? 



Mr. France — Not that I know of ; and yet I say there 

 must be a cause ? 



Dr. Miller — I think it is an old theory. I certainly have 

 been one who has held to it very strenuously that without 

 the microbe there could be no foul brood. Have you at any 

 time understood that without the microbe there will be no 

 foul brood ? 



Mr. France — No, sir. 



Dr. Miller — I have held that until the last week or so. I 

 was veijy much surprised to find in one of the Belgian jour- 

 nals that a very careful examination was made by Dr. Lam- 

 botte, who is, as I understand it, a very able bacteriologist. 

 He went to work and examined it, and I confess to you it is 

 very hard for me to believe there is any truth in it, and yet 

 I believe the investigations were thoroughly made. He 

 found that the Bacillus alvei was nothing more nor less 

 than another microbe. The first thing he noticed was its 

 great similarity to another rather commonly known microbe, 

 and then he made very careful tests and decided it was ex- 

 actly the same thing ; that under certain circumstances this 

 microbe, the bacillus vulgaris mesentericus, would have 

 such changes made in it as to produce foul brood ; and that 

 it was the same bacillus under a little difi'erent condition. 



My own impression is that this is correct, although I don't 

 like to believe that foul brood is in a healthy colony. 



A Member — Is foul brood animal or vegetable life ? 



Mr. France — As far as we can decide that, we would 

 call it vegetable in its nature, yet it has a power of motion 

 similar to that of a worm, and in that way would much re- 

 semble life; but at the same time it is generally understood 

 by scientists to be of vegetable matter. 



Mr. France — I want you all to examine these samples of 

 foul brood, and I want to get daylight for your inspection. 

 Please handle these combs carefully, because you may 

 gather the germs of disease ; and when you look at them 

 take the comb down to look into the bottom of the cell. 

 That is the one thing I am trying to emphasize, and what 

 we are looking for. Take it at an angle until the light 

 strikes it just a little over the front end, when you will see 

 that little black scale turned up in that way. 



A Member — That will be to the front of the cell, 

 won't it ? 



Mr. France — Yes, nearly to the front side. 

 (To be coatinued.) 



Contributed Articles. ^ 



Osmosis and Atavism — " Umbilical Cord." 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



I AM glad to respond to the Editor's suggestion called out 

 by the inquiry of Geo. W. Adams, of Essex County, 

 Mass., in his reference to the umbilical cord in bees. It 

 is often strange how people are led into what seems very 

 strange theories. Some years ago you will remember we had 

 a great deal about the bees putting formic acid in the honey 

 from their sting, which nonsense long ago passed into ob- 

 livion. Only a few years ago some one of apparently no 

 mean ability thought to question the well-proved theory of 

 Dzierzon. Now we have this theory of an umbilical cord. 

 If I might use the expression, I should like to refer to these 

 three as the trinity of errors. The last one seems to me 

 strikingly without foundation. I have studied bees of all 

 kinds in all stages, time and again, and I never saw any- 

 thing that could be likened to an umbilical cord, and if I 

 had, I should certainly have regarded that as a misnomer, 

 for surely the developing bee has no use for any such organ. 

 It lies immediately in its nutritious pabulum and has no 

 need of any connection with any outside source of nutri- 

 ment. Your correspondent has asked if osmosis does not 

 fully explain the method of food-taking of the larval bees, 

 and he might add either of worker, drone or queen. I think 

 it is without doubt true that the bee-larva does take its food 

 largely by this process of osmosis. 



THE I,AW OF OSMOSIS. 



The word " osmosis " may be defined to mean the pas- 

 sage of a liquid or gas through an organic membrane, which 

 membrane is made up of cells. It is one of the most impor- 

 tant phenomena which take place in any plant or animal. 

 The word "digestion" is often defined as liquefying the 

 food. I would define it as rendering the food osmotic. That 

 is, making it capable of passing through the inner part of 

 cellular wall of the stomach into the blood. Some food that 

 is already liquid, like serum or blood albumin, is yet non- 

 osmotic. It can not pass from the stomach through to 

 the blood until it is first digested. The same is true of the 

 egg-albumin or white of an egg, and the caseine or proteid 

 of milk. This is the substance that makes cheese. It is 

 liquid in the milk but is yet non-osmotic and must be 

 digested before it can pass to the blood. 



Osmosis, then, is found everywhere in the body. As 

 the nutritious material passes from the blood to the tissues, 

 or again to the glands, it is done through osmosis. As the 

 waste of the body leaves the tissues, or is passed off by kid- 

 neys, skin, lungs or liver, it is done through this same 

 principle of osmosis. All work of the body is attended with 

 this osmosis, and without it life would not continue for an 

 instant. The air passes from the lung-cells to the blood 

 through osmosis, and the carbon-dioxide passes oflf in the 

 same way. We even take in oxygen through our skin by 



