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THE AMERICAN BEE JOLHrSAL. 



Oct. 8, 1903. 



in these particulars. You must have your honey in as nice 

 shape as Nature produced it. Much fine honey has been 

 ruined by carelessness in this direction, so much so that I 

 would reject much sage honey because of its bitterness. 

 (Continued next week.) 





Contributed Articles 





Disease-Germs— What They Are, and What 

 Promotes or Hinders Their Propa- 

 gation ? 



BY J. E. JOHNSON. 



FIRST, let me quote from the works of Prof. Georg-e Mew- 

 man, M. D.. F. R. S., Demonstrator of Bacteriology in 



Kings College, London : 



" Latterly, bacteriologists have come to understand 

 that it is not so much the presence of the organisms which 

 are injurious to man or other animals, as it is their products 

 which cause the mischief. These products are termed 

 toxins." 



Now, as I have said before, these bacteria are vegetable 

 organisms, or little plants. Some bacteria are reproduced 

 by budding, some from spores, and others by fission. In a 

 favorable medium they increase very rapidly. The pear- 

 blight bacillus, for instance, increases by fission, and one 

 bacillus, in favorable media of proper temperature, and con- 

 taining enough nutriment, would in 24 hours produce 

 17,000,000 similar organisms, or over 4,000,000,000 in three 

 days. This organism is plainly visible when magnified 

 1000 diameters. 



Dysentery among either animals or bees is caused by 

 microbes which inhabit the soil near the surface, and are 

 conveyed in dust form to the food eaten or the air inhaled. 

 The three chief forms of the lower bacteria are thus : 

 Round cell form are called coccus ; rod form, or those that 

 are longer than broad, are called bacillus ; the blight bac- 

 terium is about the form of a grain of wheat, and is called 

 bacillus. Those of thread form are called spirillum. The 

 lower bacteria are flowerless, the higher forms of bacteria, 

 however, have actual flowers. Anitrobic bacteria can only 

 live in liquids, as the free oxygen kills them, or, rather, the 

 Mrobes of the air are antagonistic to them. If the blight- 

 germs could only live in liquid, then the a_'robes of the air 

 would kill them on the bee's tongue. However, the blight- 

 germs are not of anaerobic nature, although moisture is 

 necessary to their propagation. A culture containing these 

 germs, if merely smeared on the twigs of a pear-tree, will 

 cause the tree to become diseased, if the tree is favorable to 

 the propagation of the blight-germ. 



But as I have written on the blight question before, and 

 this is a bee-paper and not a fruit-paper, I will not tire those 

 who are not interested in fruit ; however, let me say that 

 this year I had one limb that blighted during our rainy spell, 

 but as it had turned dry when I found it, and a neighbor 

 fruit-grower came over, we cut it out and examined it 

 thoroughly ; the blight had died out of itself. There is a 

 good deal of blight near me this year, but not so much as 

 last. Some pear-growers cut out their blight and some did 

 not. 



Prof. Burrill, of the Illinois Experimental Station, who 

 was the first to discover blight-germs, in 1879, and an- 

 nounced it to the public in 1880, thinks itquite possible that 

 they live in the soil, and if such be the case, blight-germs 

 would travel in the air when the air was real moist, espe- 

 cially in fog. 



Prof. Burrill is sending me cultures or artificial media ; 

 he agrees with me that when trees are properly fed they be- 

 come more resistent to blight. 



It is the foul-brood germ 1 wish to write about. As I 

 have increased to over SO colonies, and (nothing preventing) 

 will make further increase ; and as I find there is an apiary 

 only 25 miles away badly affected with foul brood, which 

 makes me fear it may be even closer, and if my bees get it 

 I want to be able to fight it to a finish. And although this 

 article may not establish any facts concerning the disease, 

 it may draw out more substantial information. 



I am not satisfied with the views of some, as very able 



men, who have had much experience with foul brood, seem 

 to dift'er greatly. Mr. France and Mr. McEvoy seem to give 

 diseased honey the principal credit of spreading the disease, 

 while, in Cuba, some say honey from a diseased colony will 

 not give others the disease. (See Progressive Bee-Keeper 

 for July, page 187). Now, there are such men as Pasteur 

 and others who have spent nearly their whole lives in inves- 

 tigating the nature of the different pathogenic germs, and 

 it is an established fact that nearly all, if not all, diseases 

 of the animal kingdom aredue to microbes ; also, that there 

 are some germs that are antagonistic to others, and that 

 there is a constant struggle for the survival of the fittest, 

 or strongest ; especially is it so between the pathogenic and 

 saprophytic germs. Two species will often not grow in the 

 same culture together, as the product of one species is death 

 to the other. Now, according to Dr. Germano and others, 

 some disease-germs or spores will survive drying much 

 longer than others. Miguel has demonstrated by tests that 

 some spores can remain alive in a dried state for at least 16 

 years, while others only a few hours. Now, the question I 

 want to ask is, How long can the foul-brood spores survive 

 drying ? 



At the Chicago convention, Mr. France re'ated his ex- 

 perience with one case in which the bees contracted the dis- 

 ease from old, foul-broody combs that had been sealed up in 

 hives for eight years. If I mistake not, it is a fact that 

 bacteria must have their proper diet the same as other 

 plants. 



Let me further quote Mr. Mewman's works on Bacteria, 

 page 12 : " From what we have seen of the diet of micro- 

 organisms, we shall conclude that in some form or other 

 they contain nitrogen, carbon, and hydrogen." The reason 

 I withhold nitrogen from my pear-trees is because I believe 

 the blight-germs' diet to consist largely of nitrogen. Now 

 that is the chief diet of the foul-brood bacteria (it is called 

 bacillus, because of its shape). Is it in the honey, or only 

 in the brood ? and why does it thrive in the brood and not 

 in the bee after it is out of the cell ? I want to ask those 

 who k«ow. 



Have you ever fed a healthy colony on honey from a 

 diseased colony ? and have they thereby become diseased ? 

 It seems that Mr. Rockenback has, and proved that it does 

 not. (See Progressive Bee-Keeper for July). He seems to 

 have had foul brood among his bees in the very worst form. 

 According to Mr. France's experience, the spores will 

 survive drying for at least eight years. Now, according to 

 the best authorities on bacteriology, the spores that survive 

 drying a long time are frequently conveyed in the air in 

 form of dust-particles only when dry, or might be when the 

 air be moist, such as fog or when raining. No bacteria will 

 leave a moist medium and travel in dry air ; it must be dried 

 first. The laws of gravity also affect all microbes in their 

 travel in the air. 



Now, one thing more : Do, or do not, any microbes 

 originate spontaneously? As far back as 1862, Louis Pas- 

 teur, the world's greatest bacteriologist, arrayed against 

 the world's greatest scientists of that day, proved by thor- 

 ough tests that there was no such thing as spontaneous 

 generation, or, at least, it seemed so, for M. Flourens, sec- 

 retary of the Academy of Science, said ; " There is, there- 

 fore, no such thing as spontaneous generation," To 

 doubt still is not to understand the question. (See life and 

 work of Pasteur, page 63.) Still, when we take into con- 

 sideration that the germs of cholora can stand only dry- 

 ing for a few hours, and sometimes it will break out from 

 seemingly no cause except filth and corruption, or over- 

 crowding, lack of ventilation, or certain conditions may 

 develop a new life of the vegetable of the lowest of all veg- 

 etable nature. 



When Mr. France was asked at the Chicago convention 

 if the disease would start of itself without inoculation, he 

 answered, " Possibly once in a thousand times." I find 

 that other scientists are not entirely satisfied on this ques- 

 tion. It is well that we understand the important question 

 more thoroughly. If there should be spontaneous genera- 

 tion once in a million times, then Pasteur's victory is all a 

 mistake, and under favorable conditions they might origi- 

 nate much oftener. 



Now, the bee-keepers owe a great deal to the efforts of 

 McEvoy, France, Cook, and others, as it is no doubt they 

 can cure foul brood — thanks to their untiring efforts — but is 

 it not a fact that while it is being cured in one place it is 

 being spread to others, and even possibly nearly every State 

 has it more or less ? 



When once in a locality, even after cured, can we feel 

 safe that there are not some dormant or dried spores wait- 

 ing favorable opportunities to start the disease anew. 



