5o8 



NATURE 



[August 23, 19 17 



able reason appears to have escaped the attention 

 of the authorities. 



The mortality which has acquired the popular 

 name of "Isle of Wight " disease from the fact 

 that it was first observed about twelve years ago 

 in that island and for some time was practically 

 confined to it, is in reality not so much 

 a disease as a group of diseases, all of which are 

 fatal and produce the same macroscopic symptoms 

 in the affected insect. The condition known as 

 "crawling" — that is, the inability, more or less 

 pronounced, to fly in spite of desperate efforts — 

 the distortion of the wings, the faecal discharge 

 known as "dysentery," the dwindling of the num- 

 bers of the worker bees, and their sudden and 

 apparently unaccountable death in large numbers 

 are considered by the average bee-keeper to justify 

 him in declaring his bees affected with " Isle of 

 Wight " disease, but none of these symptoms are 

 truly diagnostic. 



The honey bee, as was pointed out in an article 

 in Nature of March 2, 1916, has singularly little 

 power of expression, and the writer of the present 

 article has observed the distortion of the wings at 

 one time supposed to be characteristic of the 

 disease in an apparently healthy bee killed in an 

 entomologist's "killing bottle." Some, if not all, 

 of the symptoms referred to may be present when- 

 ever bees die of a virulent disease, while there 

 are at least three natural agencies, and possibly 

 more, which cause the " sudden death of bees in 

 large numbers," which Zander' says is the most 

 obvious way by which bee disease can be deter- 

 mined. These agencies are (a) Nosema apis, (/») 

 amceboid parasites, and (c) certain yeasts present 

 in fermenting p>ollen. 



The first of these alone causes microsporidiosis, 

 the true infectious " Isle of Wight " disease, but 

 the outcome of the confusion of all these maladies 

 under one name has been a vast amount of loose 

 talk and unscientific remedies, to use no harsher 

 term. A preparation of coal tar, a combination 

 of several germicides, hydrogen peroxide, sulphate 

 of quinine, and even pea-flour have all been put 

 forward as sovereign remedies and extensively 

 sold to distracted beekeepers. Confident claims 

 that this or that race of bees is immune to the 

 disease have been put forward from time to time, 

 and well-meaning but wholly unscientific attempts 

 have been made to resuscitate the waning industry 

 in places where the mortality has been highest by 

 the introduction of new stocks either of alleged 

 resistant strains or of healthy, but of course sus- 

 ceptible, colonies from some district supposed to 

 be free from infection. The result has generally 

 been disastrous, and there are now many parts of 

 England, where formerly there were hundreds of 

 colonies, in which the industry of bee-keeping has 

 been almost abandoned in despair and a honey bee 

 is a rare insect. 



What then is the remedy? Without conceding 

 all the claims that bee-keej>ers have made as to the 

 value of their charges in fertilising the blossom 

 of fruit trees — for it roust be admitted that in the 



1 " Handbuc*! Her Bien^nUunde," vol. ii. 



NO. 2495, VOL. 99] 



absence of honey bees the work of pollination is 

 performed by other insects — it is allowed that bee- 

 keeping is an important national industry. The 

 nectar in flowers, if not collected and turned into 

 honey by bees, is lost to the service of man, and 

 now more than ever it is desirable to accumulate 

 and utilise every kind of food that can be pro- 

 duced at home. 



At the same time, the individual bee-keeper is 

 helpless. Even in the rare cases where he is 

 a man of science, he has no means of effecting a 

 cure if his bees are attacked ; still less has he 

 the means of preventing infection. The control, 

 and where possible the eradication, of contagious 

 disease is a matter for Government intervention, 

 but the Bee Diseases Bill which w^as twice intro- 

 duced into Parliament by the Board of Agri- 

 culture was abandoned owing to the active opposi- 

 tion of a certain section of the bee-keeping com- 

 munity. The Government can scarcely be blamed 

 for relaxing its efforts to control the disease 

 in view of the lukewarm support it has received 

 from the persons who would have benefited had 

 those efforts been successful. The only hope 

 appears to be in the universities, the National 

 Agricultural and Horticultural Societies, or in the 

 last resort the wealthy benefactors, who might 

 conjointly form a National Bee-keeping Institute 

 for the improvement and development of the In- 

 dustry, the studv of disease, and the Improvement 

 of the breeds of bees kept in the British Isles. 



The lines on which further research should be 

 conducted are more or less indicated by the results 

 already achieved. The organism that causes 

 microsporidiosis is known, its life-history is fairlv 

 well understood, and the conditions under which 

 Nosema flourishes and the principal means of 

 Infection have been ascertained. What is now 

 desired is a suitable treatment and a study of the 

 conditions under which recovery can best be 

 secured. It is, of course, unwise to reason too 

 closely from analogous diseases in other animals, 

 but It is at least possible that the Investigations 

 that are being made into amoebic dysentery In man 

 mav give some clue to the discovery of a method 

 of dislodging the parasite from its home in the 

 cells of the bee's stomach, or of paralysing th< 

 activities of the "planont" before they are abl* 

 to effect their lodging there. At the present tlm< 

 scientific research in bee-keeping Is almost at 

 a standstill, and a new departure is needed. Is 

 it too much to hope that some of those who 

 have devoted themselves to the study of epidemir 

 diseases in man should apply their experience I; 

 the service of a humble but useful form of hus- 

 bandrv? 



NOTES. 

 We learn from Science that Dr. R. A. Millikan i- 

 acting as the representative of the U.S. National Re- 

 search Council in general charge of scientific ques- 

 tions referred to the council, that Dr. C. E. Menden- 

 hall is in charge of the development of the variou- 

 instruments used in connection with aeroplanes, an' 

 that Dr. A. Trowbridge has organised an iniportan 

 branch of scientific service for the U.S. Army in 



