April, 1914. 



Americanize Jonrnalj 



position of the organisms which have 

 given hold to the infection. 



At the present day, under the influ- 

 ence of the great development of bac- 

 teriological science and of the services 

 which it has rendered in surgical prac- 

 tice, there is too much tendency to 

 consider, in human and animal medi- 

 cine, only the microbal element, and to 

 neglect the causes of weakness of the 

 organic beings upon which microbe 

 thrives. 



This means that in the researches 

 pursued regarding foulbrood, it is 

 wrong to confine ourselves to an en- 

 quiry concerning the contagion pure 

 and simple, and to believe that bacter- 

 iology alone may enable us to remedy 

 the trouble, by furnishing us a specific 

 antiseptic treatment. 



To my mind, a faulty method is fol- 

 lowed by directing the studies in this 

 exclusive way. We should, on the 



contrary, make efforts to ascertain, in 

 the direction of the bee's organism, 

 the causes of weakness which render it 

 liable to catch the infection. 



But, in order to be still better under- 

 stood, this proposition needs to be 

 sustained with general considerations 

 and analogical reasoning. Everything 

 holds together in Nature, and that 

 which is correct in general for the dis- 

 eases of man is also correct for the 

 diseases of animals. 



Thus, when we examine it from the 

 standpoint of the evolution of individ- 

 uals and of races, a disease is but a 

 work of natural selection which arrests 

 the beings of the species on the down- 

 ward slope of natural degenerescence, 

 by compelling them to become puri- 

 fied, to rid themselves of the noxious 

 substances which have accumulate'd in 

 them. It compels them to momentarily 

 cease the usage of bad conditions of 



Compound Frames for Nuclei at the Mont-Jovet Apiary. 



existence, which would have quickly 

 brought about their destruction, if 

 these conditions had been permitted to 

 remain in action. Disease, therefore, 

 fulfills a useful role for the preserva- 

 tion and the progress of the race, since 

 it attacks only the beings which are in 

 a state of vital inferiority and causes 

 them to disappear, to leave standing 

 only the robust organisms capable of 

 bringing about the progress of the 

 race. 



In fact, do we not see that, in man, 

 the acute and chronic infectious dis- 

 eases strike almost exclusively the 

 weak or the degenerates, and that in 

 even the worst epidemics, not every- 

 body is affected, in spite of common 

 contact with virulent microbes ? So, 

 when the epidemic is at last extin- 

 guished, those individuals alone remain 

 who are the most resistant; they are 

 the choice of the work of natural selec- 

 tion, as being the best and the most apt 

 to perpetuate their kind. 



We see then, that without doubt, the 

 idea of the resistance of the beings is 

 important to view. But what are the 

 principal causes of the waning of the 

 vital forces of organisms ? They are 

 of two opposite orders. There are on 

 one side insufficiencies, that is to say 

 lack of good air, light, motion, etc. 

 And on the other hand we find all the 

 vices and excesses, that is to say over- 

 feeding or the consumption of ele- 

 ments which are unhealthy, toxic, 

 adulterated, artificial, and perhaps over- 

 work. 



These two opposite, defective modes 

 of living may lead to the same disease, 

 the same infection. Man, for example, 

 may cause himself to become tubercu- 

 lous by lack or excess of food. There 

 is no cause for astonishment in these 

 identical conclusions, since the two 

 modes of life have been equally de- 

 ficient and have led to the same final 

 result; the weakening of the force of 

 vital resistance. The microbe gives 

 no regard to the cause which has pro- 

 duced this weakness ; it is sufficient for 

 it to find the open door; that is to say 

 the absence of organic defenses. 



All the diseases, and especially the 

 infectious diseases, so-called conta- 

 gious, have a deep cause, non apparent 

 at first sight. They depend much more 

 upon the mode of life followed generally 

 than upon the contamination by viru- 

 lent germs. 



In what concerns foulbrood, it is es- 

 sential to take note of this fact, of the in- 

 iection coming principally through the 

 lack of resistance of the honey-bee, 

 due perhaps as much to the insuffi- 

 ciency of food and care as to faults in 

 the artificial feeding or the manage- 

 ment of apiaries. It explains why foul- 

 brood may appear as readily in aban- 

 doned apiaries as in enterprises con- 

 ducted with a profusion of caution, 

 often contrary to natural laws and 

 therefore noxious. 



That which indicates that the ques- 

 tion of resistance is fundamental is 

 that all the microbes are present 

 around us in Nature, whether they ex- 

 ist upon us, in our natural cavities, or 

 around us in the shape of unimportant 

 parasites or sa/'iofhylcs, as they are 

 called in scientific language. It has 

 been ascertained that we carry per- 

 manently, in our nose, mouth and in- 



