148 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



March 8 1900. 



lose can be obtained, containing only a comparatively small 

 portion of dextrose ; or a more convenient method is to 

 place a portion of the candied honey on a sieve floated on a 

 weak alcohol containing' about 20 percent of water, where- 

 upon the levulose will readilj' pass into solution in the alco- 

 hol, leaving- a mass of crystals upon the sieve, which are 

 crystals of dextrose. 



If we take some of these crystals, dissolve them in 

 water, and examine the solution by the aid of an instru- 

 ment called a polariscope, we shall find that it turns the 

 plane of polarization to the right. If we take the alcoholic 

 solution and examine it by the aid of the same instrument, 

 observing proper precautions, we shall find that this solu- 

 tion turns the plane strongly to the left. This is the reason 

 that %ve have designated the sugars as right-handed sugar 

 and left-handed sugar. 



While the left-handed sugar, or levulose, can be ob- 

 tained crystallized, it is with much more difficulty than in 

 the case of the dextrose. If into a solution of dextrose there 

 be introduced some crystals of this sugar the crystallization 

 can be facilitated very, materially ; and in our climate, 

 where evaporation takes place rapidly, it is possible that we 

 can bring about the candying of extracted honey by adding 

 to it a small portion of already candied honey or crystalline 

 dextrose. W. P. Headdkn. 



Mr. Root — Is there the same amount of dextrose in all 

 honey ? 



Dr. Headden — Yes. 



Mr. Root — What becomes of the levulose when the 

 honey is candied solid, since it is only the dextrose that 

 candies ? 



Dr. Headden — It can be taken out if the honey is prest, 

 or placed in a centrifugal machine. 



Pres. Aikin — What is the reason why one lot should 

 candy and another not ? 



Dr. Headden — We are completely in the dark as to the 

 cause of granulation. 



Mr. Root — What is the process of candying — crystalli- 

 zation ? 



Dr. Headden — In ripe honey it is altogether crystalliza- 

 tion, and is a purely automatic process. Some crystalliza- 

 ble solutions are strongly affected by stirring, but I doubt 

 whether honey is. It is too viscid. 



J. U. Harris — I understand that Section 8, of the clause 

 of the horticultural law that relates to spraying fruit-trees 

 in bloom, has been repealed. I move a committee be ap- 

 pointed to investigate. 



Carried, and Messrs. Harris, Whipple and Brock were 

 appointed as the committee. 



Prof. C. P. Gillette, professor of entomology of the 

 State Agricultural College at Fort Collins, then read a 

 paper on the principles necessary to the understanding of 

 foul brood, explaining germ diseases, and showing that it 

 is one of them. He had with him a large microscope with 

 a slide on which some stained foul brood bacilli were clearly 

 visible, magnified 1,000 diameters. His paper is as follows : 



Foul Brood— Germ Diseases. 



Foul brood has long been known as a true contagious 

 disease. Such diseases do their most destructive work when 

 they attack individuals that are crowded together in densely 

 populated communities. The fact that the honey-bee lives 

 in such communities, and the further fact that both the bees 

 and their products are shipt freely from place to place, have 

 made this a very serious and widespread malady. If it once 

 enters an apiary, and nothing is done to eradicate it, it is 

 almost certain that it will, in time, destroy every colony in 

 its immediate neighborhood. Colorado's pure air and 

 abundant sunshine seem to offer no impediment to the 

 rapid development and spread of this disease, which is 

 widely disseminated in the State. It is important, there- 

 fore, that all who keep bees should know the cause of this 

 disease, its symptoms, its methods of dissemination, and 

 also the preventives and remedies that may be; used to les- 

 sen its destructive work. I presume most of you are better 

 acquainted with the symptoms and remedies of foul brood 

 than with its real cause and methods of dissemination, so I 

 have chosen to dwell principally upon these latter topics. 



The researches of the past 35 years, and chiefly of the 

 past IS years, have shown that most, if not all, contagious 

 diseases are the result of the attack of microscopic parasites 

 upon some part of the diseased plant or animal. 



Every one understands how it is that parasites, such as 

 ticks, lice, and mites that produce itch, scab and mange, 

 are conveyed from one host to another, and also how it is 

 that the particular complaint accompanying each of these 



parasites could not occur in the absence of the particular 

 parasite. Cholera, small-pox, diphtheria, and typhoid fever 

 are also parasitic infections, but the organisms producing 

 these diseases are so small that they can not be seen by the 

 unaided eye. 



On account of the minuteness of these organisms, re- 

 quiring the aid of a compound microscope to enable man to 

 see them, there are many people who think that the " ba- 

 cilli " and " microbes " of which the scientist speaks exist 

 only in his own fertile imagination. 



What are these minute organisms ? How do they in- 

 crease in numbers ? What do they look like under the 

 microscope ? and how do we know that they are the cause 

 of contagious diseases ? These are questions that I shall 

 attempt in some degree to answer. 



In the first place, it is conceded that these organisms 

 belong to the vegetable kingdom in spite of the fact that 

 they are able to move freely about in the moist media that 

 they inhabit. They are closely related to such vegetable 

 growths as rusts, smuts, mildews and molds, with which 

 all are more or less familiar. 



Altho micro-organisms are the cause of nearly all con- 

 tagious diseases of plants and animals, these organisms are 

 not all detrimental to man's welfare. Some are of the ut- 

 most importance. Without them there would be no decom- 

 position of dead animal or vegetable matter, and the soil 

 would lose its fertility. There would be no fermentation, 

 no souring of vinegar or milk, no ripening of cream or 

 cheese. 



These organisms varj' greatly in shape. Some are 

 merely oval bodies, being nearly as broad as long ; others 

 are cylindrical or rod-shaped ; of the latter, some are very 

 short and others are long compared with their diameters. 

 Others are variously curved, some taking the form of a 

 spiral. All have the power of movement, and when seen 

 alive under the microscope they are usually moving very 

 rapidly about, often in countless thousands. 



The germs of foul brood have been named Bacillus 

 alvei. They are very large compared with most bacilli, and 

 are in the shape of short rods of varying lengths. The 

 longer ones have about the proportions of the half of an 

 ordinary lead-pencil. Altho these germs are very large it 

 would require 5,400 of them placed end to end to reach one 

 inch. Of the spores formed from the rods it would require 

 12,000 to span one inch. Some micro-organisms are so small 

 that it would require more than 50,000 to span one inch 

 when placed end to end. Perhaps it would be more intelli- 

 gible to say that 1,800,000 of these spores could rest side by 

 side on the head of a common pin. This will, at least, 

 made it evident that there would be no use to look for these 

 organisms with the naked eye, or with any of the hand 

 magnifiers. Nothing but a powerful compound microscope 

 can reveal them to the human eye. 



In 1850, Davaine, of France, discovered great numbers 

 of minute rod-like organisms in the blood of animals dying 

 of splenic fever, or anthrax. He considered these objects as 

 one of the symptoms accompanying the disease, but did not 

 think of such a thing as their being the cause. 



A few years later Pasteur, also of France, began a 

 series of experiments to determine the cause of fermenta- 

 tion of beer and wine. He succeeded in proving beyond 

 question that the real cause was the presence and growth of 

 micro-organisms, and that without these organisms no fer- 

 mentation could be produced. These announcements of 

 Pasteur in 1863 led Davaine to suspect that the rods that he 

 found in the blood of animals having splenic fever might 

 be the cause of that disease. To test the matter he inocu- 

 lated healthy animals with blood of diseased animals con- 

 taining the germs, and found that he could produce the dis- 

 ease with great certaintj'. So it was about 37 j'ears ago 

 that it was first proven that micro-organisms might be the 

 cause of a contagious disease. 



When Davaine's announcement was made there were 

 very few, even among scientists, who would believe it. In 

 consequence of this the experiments were carried thru 

 again with the utmost care by Dr. Koch, of Germany, in 

 1876, and by Pasteur, of France, in 1877. The results were 

 so conclusive in proving that the bacilli were the real cause 

 of the disease, that Davaine's theory was generall3' accepted. 



In the meantime, in 1865, Pasteur announced the re- 

 sults of his investigation of a terrible silkworm disease 

 known as Pcbrine, which threatened to destroy the silk in- 

 dustry of France, showing that this disease was also caused 

 by a specific microbe. 



These discoveries struck the key-note to the real cause 

 of all similar diseases, whether in man, the lower animals, 

 or in plants. It is one of the epoch-making discoveries of 



