THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



105 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER, 1869. 



The Foulbrood Question. 



On another page will be found a full account 

 of the proceedings of the Committee appointed 

 by the Salzgitter Beekeepers' Union, in Bruns- 

 wick, to#test Mr. Lambrecht's ability to cause 

 and cure foulbrood in a colony of bees. The 

 result, according to the statement of the Com- 

 mittee, shows that Mr. L. really performed 

 what he professed himself able to do ; an6l that 

 this formidable disease is now at length brought 

 within the control of medical or rather chemi- 

 cal science. 



But, doubts have been expressed in distin- 

 guished quarters, whether the test instituted was 

 in reality a fair one. The disease, produced in 

 the colony under consideration, and again cured 

 by Mr. Lambrecht, it is now alleged was an 

 artificial one ^ which may indeed have resembled 

 foulbrood in some of its more prominent mani- 

 festations, without being in fact the genuine 

 malady, such as originates in or from natural 

 causes. Hence it is inferred and suggested that 

 the cure was simply empirical, and is at most 

 adapted only to cases like that in hand. Con- 

 ceding that this may be so, the fact that it is so 

 still remains to be demonstrated ; and if that 

 were done, it would not be an occurrence very 

 marvellous in medical science, where theory 

 and practice are so perpetually fluctuating, that 

 w^hat is lauded to-day as a panacea, may to-mor- 

 row be denounced as mere worthless charla- 

 tanry. 'Tis even so. Goethe says — 



" Der Geist der Medicin ist leicht zu fassen :— 



Ihr durchstudirt die grosz' und kleine "Welt 



Um es am Ende gelin zulassen, 



Wies Gott gefallt !» 



Of course, under such circumstances, we 

 would not undertake to contend, as aeaiusthigh 

 authorities, that Mr. Lambrecht's processes are 

 all and can effect all that he claims, or that may 

 be desired. Yet he appears, in this instance, to 

 have done, what no one has ever done before 

 on any scientific principles whatever. He has 

 cured that which experienced and intelligent 

 apiarians— experts— pronounced to be foul- 

 brood, even though it was artificially produced. 

 So far so good. Now, to meet the objections, 

 let him take in hand an ascertained case of foul- 

 brood undoubtedly originating from natural 



causes (and many such can readily be found); 

 and if, in addition to what he has already ac- 

 complished, he efftcts a radical cure in such a 

 case, we may certainly regard him as quoad lioc 

 a doctor, though he liave no di[)loma ! He is 

 an educated chemist, professes to regard the dis- 

 ease as subject to chemical laws, claims that he 

 compounds his remedies on chemical principles, 

 and applies them in accordance with chemical 

 theories; and if he chores the patient, he may 

 certainly be supposed to do it rigidly secundum 

 artem ! It he now, to make the matter clear to 

 the comprehension of ordinary minds, proceeds 

 and shows that he can cure foulbrood of every 

 kind or description — contagious or non-con- 

 tagious ; mild or malignant ; accidental, inci- 

 dental, artificial or natural— i/mi/ac^ is about all 

 the beekeepers will care to know. So long as 

 doubts may be fairly or even plausibly urged 

 against his methods or pretensions, it behooves 

 him to meet and dissipate them ; but mere cap- 

 tious fault-finding, it cannot be expected that 

 he, or any one for him, will ever heed. 



The differences between Dr. Preuss and Mr. 

 Lambrecht do not strike us as being so great as 

 to be irreconcilable.' Nor does it matter much 

 whether foulbrood is of fungoid origin, or finds 

 its source in putrefactive fermentation, promded 

 we are put in possession of efficient means to 

 arrest and cure it. That is here "the one thing 

 needful." On the theory of Dr. Preuss, how- 

 ever, we cannot see how the disease is ever to 

 be extirpated, when it has once obtained foot- 

 hold in an apiary or a district. If it is liable 

 to start into existence and action whenever and 

 wherever the fungoid sporules, ever floating in 

 countless myriads iu the atmosphere, find a 

 suitable nidus and fostering heat and moisture 

 to aid development, no colony can be always 

 safe from the inroads of this disease, in any 

 locality where bees can be cultivated. This 

 "noisome pestilence" that hitherto has been 

 literally "walking in darkness," may thus be 

 expelled to-day, only to reappear to-morrow 

 with re-invigorated virulence. But such does 

 not, to us, appear to be the mode of its diffu- 

 sion ; and hence we are inclined to infer also 

 that such is not the manner of its origination. 

 Its progress in an apiary, so far as we have ob- 

 served it or are advised, however it may have 

 originated, can always be traced to direct 

 communication and actual contact ; and this 

 accords better, it seems to us, with Mr. Lam- 

 brecht's views and theory, than with those of 

 Dr. Preuss. Between the two, however — each 

 an adept in his own province — the whole subject 



