776 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOLiHrNAU. 



Dec. 3, 1903. 



without trouble. There is generally no trouble about suffi- 

 cient moisture in a hive in winter. Keep close watch of a 

 strong colony toward spring, and you may often see a little 

 stream of water running out of the hive-entrance. Look 

 into a hive in the cellar, and you will see drops of water 

 often standing on the back wall. Whether it be that mois- 

 ture settles upon the candy, or the bees furnish the moisture 

 through their tongues, or both, the fact is that experience 

 shows that candy answers a very satisfactory purpose in 

 winter, and after cold weather sets in it is much to be pre- 

 ferred to winter-fed syrup. 



Honey Coug-h-Medicine. 



The following is clipped from a newspaper : 



" For a cough, boil an ounce of whole flaxseed in a pint 

 of water, strain and add a little honey, the juice of two 

 lemons, and an ounce of rock candy. Stir together and 

 boil a few minutes. Drink hot. " 



( 



Contributed Articles 



] 



Propagation of Foul-Brood Germs. 



BV |. E. JOHNSON. 



ON page 696, Mr. C. P. Dadant, I think, threw consider- 

 able light on the subject of why wax is immune and 



does not spread the disease of foul brood. Begging his 

 pardon, however, I am entirely confident that he is wrong 

 in regard to the power of spores to resist heat in boiling 

 water. It has for many years been an established fact that 

 spores (not bacilli) of some species can withstand three, or 

 nearly three, hours of dry heat at a temperature of 28+ de- 

 grees, and nearly 60 minutes of 212 degrees F. in boiling 

 water. The non-sporulating bacteria are, as a rule, much 

 more easily destroyed. 



At the present time there is something like 1200 differ- 

 ent bacteria known (those not known may be even more 

 numerous) ; all, or nearly all, medical colleges have the dif- 

 ferent bacteria in cultures, and have experimented with 

 them, so that it is no longer guess-work as to how much 

 heat they will withstand, or how much of this or that it will 

 take to destroy them ; but the question in medical practice 

 is, if the germs of disease have found lodgment in our sys- 

 tems, what will destroy them and not injure the system ? In 

 fact, in treating disease it is as yet not generally on the 

 plan of killing the germs so much as it is on the plan of aid- 

 ing the system to throw off the pathogenic effect of the 

 germs. In many cases the germs would still be present in 

 the system, but made non-pathogenic when the remedy had 

 effected a cure. I see in the daily papers remedies advertised 

 and guaranteed to kill every germ in existence, to be taken 

 internally ; if such should be the case we would soon die if 

 we took the rem edy, even though we did not become pois- 

 oned, as even the digestion of our food is more or less the 

 result of certain germs belonging to the bacterium family. 



It is not so much that the life of a spore can resist such 

 severe treatment as boiling, but it is because the capsule or 

 shell of the spore is endowed with such resisting qualities. 

 If we could take a spore and crack the shell open, even the 

 sunlight would soon be fatal to it ; but when we consider 

 that spores are so small that 1000 would have ample room 

 on the point of a pin or a cambric needle, it would take 

 quite a while to crack the shells of a bushel or two. 



The standard disinfectant at present is saturated steam 

 at a temperature of 100 degrees C. (which is equal to about 

 245 degrees F.) for about IS minutes ; dry steam, although 

 equally hot, would take a much longer time to kill spores. 



Yes, it is strange that any form of life will stand so 

 severe treatment, but it is true, nevertheless. In fact, the 

 whole great subject of bacteriology is strange, but it is a 

 science now well estsblished and quite accurate, as far as 

 established. I think Mr. Dadant is probably right about 

 the spores becoming mummified or coated with melted wax 

 so as to be harmless. 



I do not know, but let me offer an explanation : That 

 the brood will not become diseased by coming in contact 



with the spores, but only when taken as food ; also, that 

 when spores are soaked in hot wax, or even if not very hot, 

 it may penetrate the shell of the spores so as to prevent any 

 future development, and so be rendered forever harmless, 

 though not dead. 



Bacillus alvei being reproduced from spores, it would be 

 among the hardest to destroy ; but it may be possible that 

 even though the spores of bacillus alvei can withstand two 

 hours ordinary boiling, they may become coated and harm- 

 less in melted wax even though not boiled. If such be the 

 case, it must be because the disease cannot be contracted 

 except through food. 



I think it very doubtful if oil of eucalyptus would kill 

 spores, but any antiseptic that can be used in the hive with- 

 out harm to the bees would kill bacilli, and prevent the 

 spores from propagating, to some extent at least. An anti- 

 septic is next in power to a disinfectant, and if oil of eucalyp- 

 tus can be used in a hive of bees without injury to the bees, 

 it would have many advantages, as the temperature of the 

 brood would be such that the spores would be in active re- 

 production, hence much more easily destroyed ; or, in other 

 words, the antiseptic properties of the oil of eucalyptus, if 

 pretty strong, would kill the bacalli, and, as the spores 

 would develop, the antiseptic properties would kill them be- 

 fore they could again sporulate. At least this mode of 

 treatment would be worthy of thorough trial. 



Although there is no spontaneous generation of germs, 

 there is some strange behavior of germs. For instance, 

 people may carry the germs of the genuine diphtheria in 

 their throat all their lives, and they would grow and propa- 

 gate there, but would be non-pathogenic and harmless ; but 

 such germs can at any time, under favorable conditions 

 (probably by the aid of other germs), take on a pathogenic 

 state and develop a case of genuine virulent diphtheria, and 

 when once started it would be contagious. When the dis- 

 ease could be stamped out or cured the patient would still 

 harbor and propagate the same species of germs, but they 

 would then be non-pathogenic and harmless. The disease 

 of blood-poison is the result of a combination of germs. 



I wish to correct some mistakes I have made on page 700. 

 Through carelessness I said that formalin was gas from 

 formaldehyde and 40 percent water. It should have been 

 from 40 percent formaldehyde and tvaler. On page 648 oc- 

 cur some typographical errors, and some on account of my 

 careless writing. The name Mewman should have been 

 Newman. I asked the question, " What was the diet of the 

 foul bacteria?" and was made to say " that the diet was 

 nitrogen;" the word " that " should have been "what." 

 Also by omitting a line, I was made to say there may be 

 spontaneous generation of vegetable life. In reality there 

 is no more spontaneous generation of germs than there 

 would be of people. I know we should be very careful when 

 writing for publication, and hope I may do better in the 

 future. I may not be able to do much good, but I certainly 

 hope to do no harm. Knox Co., 111. 



Care With Foul Brood-Eucalyptus Oil 

 Treatment. 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



Mk. C. p. Dadant.: — I just now read your article on page 6915, 

 and take the liberty to write to you and ask you to give me a little ad- 

 vice. 



I have about SO colonies of bees which I have worked for extract- 

 ing. I have had two and three extracting supers on the hives, and 

 have secured a good crop of honey. 



About two or three weeks ago I discovered in one colony that I had 

 bought last fall, and which I had transferred laft sprinvr in a new S- 

 frame hive (I brought 10 colonies from the same party, the others are 

 all right), in the hive-body next above the brood-chamber, a good deal 

 of dead brood, what seems to me foul brood. Several days before 1 

 discovered this I had taken off an upper super of honey, had extracted 

 it, and mixed the combs with the other extracting-combs, which I in- 

 tended to put back on the hives. Maybe I did put these frames on 

 the hives, or I may have them in my extracting-room ; and maybe they 

 were amongst a lot of supers which were set outside to make room and 

 the bees began to clean them out. On Sept. 19 I had also taken combs 

 off to extract, and they may have been put on other hives. What 1 

 wish to say is, maybe my other bees have had access to the combs of 

 the infected colony. 



The colony with the dead brood I closed up when I discovered the 

 difficulty, and moved it about 10 miles away to a place where I do not 

 think there are any bees. 



Now I would like to ask you this: I have perhaps 1.50 or more ex- 

 tracting supers which need cleaning out by the bees. Would you pile 

 them outside, and let the bees clean them out? 



I have read your article about leaving the enameled sheets on the 

 hives and putting supers bick on hives, and have done that, but look- 



