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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



wax. We only know that they will 

 use it. 



Some years ago Prof. H. W. Wiley 

 wrote what he afterward called a 

 "Scientific Pleasantry," for the Popular 

 Science Monthly, if I am correct, in 

 which he described how "artificial 

 comb" was made, and filled with imita- 

 tion honey, and declared that an expert 

 could not distinguish it from the genuine 

 stuff. He thus gave currency to what 

 has become known among apiarists as 

 the " Wiley lie," of which Prof. Evans' 

 statement seems to be an echo. 



You have no idea, Mr. Editor, how 

 much injury this little "pleasantry" 

 has done the bee-keepers of this land. 

 For, notwithstanding the fact that Prof. 

 Wiley has explained, over his own sig- 

 nature, that this was only a joke, and 

 Mr. A. I. Root, of Medina, Ohio, has 

 offered $1,000 for a single pound of the 

 comb, which has not been forthcoming, 

 yet the papers and the people go on re- 

 peating this slander on an honest and 

 reputable indust^. 



I have no idea that Prof. Evans 

 thought that he was doing any industry 

 an injury when he wrote the article re- 

 ferred to, but it does seem that it is high 

 time that people who write in the name 

 of science about bees, should inform 

 themselves as to the facts which may be 

 obtained from any practical and intelli- 

 gent apiarist, one or more of whom may 

 be found in almost every community. — 

 Popular Science Monthly, for April. 



St. Joseph, Mo. 



Tie Cause of Foul-Brooi. 



J. F. LATHAM. 



After having read and weighed the 

 various ideas embodied in the essays in 

 which the origin, treatment and cure of 

 foul-brood have been discussed, I am 

 somewhat unreconciled to the accept- 

 ance of the prime cause of that malady 

 as argued by many of the learned au- 

 thors who have contributed their theory 

 and experience to a solution of the prob- 

 lem. 



So far as visual demonstration, illus- 

 trative of tlu) general phases of growth, 

 culmination and disintegration of or- 

 ganic results, representing the disease 

 of foul-brood, are concerned, there is a 

 very general agreement. }?ut even the 

 teachings of Cheshire and Cowan fail to 

 delineate the origin of the scourge they 

 so graphically describe and illustrate. 

 Cheshire tells us t^hat the bacilli from 



which the destructive tendencies of 

 foul-brood develop, are found active in 

 the tissues of all stages of bee-life, and 

 in the latent sperm-cells of the drone, 

 and in the unlaid egg of the queen. 



When bacilli are found in the tissues 

 (muscular or otherwise) of the full- 

 grown bee, the aspect of their presence 

 would, it seems, be evidence sufficiently 

 conclusive to warrant results emanating 

 from causes accompanying physical de- 

 cline — degeneration of organic stamina ; 

 but when found only in the spermato- 

 zoon of a vigorous drone, the fact of the 

 location of the seeds of abnormality very 

 naturally prompts a query concerning 

 their origin. 



If the bacilli were taken into the sys- 

 tem by the processes of digestion and 

 assimilation, it seems that they would 

 find a lodgment in the muscular tissues 

 of the bee when not expected in the ex- 

 creta, instead of in isolated functional 

 members only. The same assumption 

 would apply very harmoniously to the 

 presence of bacilli in the unlaid egg of 

 a fecundated queen-bee in the perform- 

 ance of her normal functions. 



But if bacilli were found in the drone 

 eggs of an unfecundated queen, the 

 origin of their presence there would be 

 more mysterious than when found in 

 the eggs of a " fertilized " queen, aside 

 from the question of functional assimi- 

 lation through the circulating medium. 



Now, if the bacilli, which are pur- 

 ported to develop physical decay — foul- 

 brood — do pass into the system from the 

 food by assimilation, and remain dor- 

 mant until they are stimulated to activity 

 by conditions congenial to their devel- 

 opment as parasites, it is quite certain 

 that they must occupy a place in the 

 development of all animate objects, and 

 only wait a suspension of the impetus 

 displayed in vigorous growth to assert 

 their activity, and evolve a course of 

 development through the established 

 grades of existence consonant to their 

 rank in the scale of life — animal and 

 vegetable. 



Scientists teach us that " foul-brood " 

 is the result of fungoid growth. What 

 is fungoid growth? Is it not, in a 

 primitive sense, a development of the 

 latent principle embodied in forces that 

 stimulate to motion — activity — are ever 

 drawing into vortices the elements in 

 their surroundings, and by a continuous 

 rejection of the (to them) useless and 

 exhausted portions, generate results 

 peculiar to their line of progression ?" 

 In a modified degree there is a semblance 

 in the modes of propagation in whatever 

 situation it may be found. The pro- 



