THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



121 



not do, and that while I give in one column 

 the number of comb spaces occupied by the 

 bees as an indication of strength I have 

 added another to rectify the other to some 

 extent based on 1 to 10, 1 meaning weakest, 

 5 what would be deemed of average strength 

 and 10 the strongest. 



tion with the malady is, that it is contagious. 

 I do not contend that it is virulently so, and 

 am not certain that the bacillus Gaytoni can 

 be transmitted in any other way than by 

 actual contact of the healthy with the sick 

 individual. Reliable observers in colder 

 climates have used the combs taken from an 



TABLE A. 



w 



Lapeek, Mich., April 19, 1895. 



Some Criticisms and Cautions Regarding 

 Bee Paralysis and Some of the State- 

 ments That Have Been Made Re- 

 garding its Character. 



T. S. FOKD. 



'E are all interested in getting at the 

 truth in regard to the disease called 

 bee paralysis. Mr. Bull in a late number of 

 the Review, takes the position that it is not 

 contagious. Convinced that this is a dan- 

 gerous error and calculated to throw the in- 

 experienced off their guard, the writer feels 

 it a duty to combat it in the interest of 

 truth. 



Mr. Bull's deductions are all predicated 

 upon the experience with two infected col- 

 onies, one of which recovered under the salt 

 treatment, and the other, having no treat- 

 ment at all died. Having fed one diseased 

 colony for weeks on r alted sugar syrup with- 

 out the slightest benefit, having sprayed 

 many others with salty water as long and 

 seen them die, and having used salt in all 

 sorts of ways without result, I cannot help 

 thinking that Mr. Bull has had precisely the 

 same experience with the disease that all of 

 us have had — seen one colony recover and 

 the other die — a thing that would probably 

 have happened if he had not treated the bees 

 at all. In other words, he has not seen 

 enough of the disease to enable him to come 

 to a reliable conclusion as to whether it is 

 contagious or not. I have watched it for 

 more than three years, and the only thing 

 that I do feel real certain about in connec- 



infected hive without communicating the 

 contagion. But Mr. Bull admits that a dis- 

 eased queen will infect a healthy colony, and 

 this has been proven by the concurrent ob- 

 servation of many bee-keepers. Mr. Bull 

 contends that the queen infects the colony 

 because she transmits the malady by descent 

 like consumption and scrofula. The latest 

 teaching of science on this subject is that 

 consumption is not hereditary, but is due to 

 a bacillus which is not inherited, but received 

 into the lungs from without. And scrofula 

 is also said to be a form of tuberculosis, and 

 due to the presence of the same bacillus in 

 tissue other than the lungs. [See Interna- 

 tional Journal of Surgery for February 

 189.'), page 38.] The most scientific physi- 

 cians in treating a patient with consumption, 

 take the same precautions to disinfect the 

 sputa of their patients, in order to prevent 

 others from contracting the disease, that are 

 taken in cases of cholera, typhoid fever and 

 other maladies resulting from a specific 

 germ. So that if there be any analogy of 

 the sort suggested by Mr. Bull, between bee 

 paralysis and consumption, it is in favor of 

 the idea of contagion. 



Mr. Bull's paper is a very interesting one as 

 showing the danger of buying queens from 

 breeders who are careless or reckless enough 

 to sell queens from an infected apiary. I 

 have suffered from similar carelessness or 

 recklessness, and my whole purpose in 

 pressing my views on this subject is to im- 

 press those of our bee-keeping fraternity 

 who buy queens, with the necessity of cau- 

 tion in buying only from those breeders who 

 will keep the disease out of their apiaries. 

 There is no such thing as spontaneous gen- 



