198 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



[September. 



We may have a queen that pro- 

 duces more honey than any queen in 

 the apiary and yet not be a br»^edcr, 

 as the queens raised from her might 

 not be as good as she was. What we 

 want is to test our queens as breeders 

 to see if they reproduce themselves. 

 When Ave get such a queen we have 

 got a prize. 



Black River, N. Y. 



UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF 

 AGRICULTURE. 



Bureau of Entomology, 

 Washington, D. C, Aug. 3, IQO?- 

 Dear Mr. Hill: 



I take pleasure in sending with this 

 letter a copy of Circular 94, entitled 

 "The Cause of American Foul Brood" 

 by Dr. G. F. White, of this office. 

 This circular is a preliminary notice 

 of some work which Dr. White has 

 done and will be followed by a larger 

 publication. Any of your readers de- 

 siring a copy of this circular may 

 obtain it by addressing Chief of Bu- 

 reau of Entomology, Washington, D. 

 C. 



Yours very truly, 



E. F. Phillips, 

 In Charge of Apiculture. 

 The circular which is brief, is given 

 in full as follows: 



UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT 

 OF AGRICULTURE, 



Bureau of Entomology. 



L. O. Howard, Entomologist and 



Chief of BureaiJ. 



The Cause of American Foul Brood.* 



BY G. F. WHITE, PHD., 



Expert in Bacteriology. 

 For several reasons much confus- 

 ion exists as to the present status of 

 our knowledge of bee diseases. It is 

 hoped that this circular will give in- 

 formation which will to some extent 

 clear up the subject of American foul 

 brood from a bacteriological point of 

 view. The symptoms of this disease 

 are given in Circular No. 79 of the 



*The author wishes to acknowledge the assist- 

 ance of Dr. E. F Phillips, in Charge of Apicul- 

 ture, under whose direction this work has been 

 done. These results have been reached since the 

 author has been connected with the apicultural 

 investigations of the Bureau of Entomology. 



Bureau of Entomology, entitled "The 

 Brood Diseases of Bees." American 

 »ul brood is the prevalent disease in 

 America, and, judging from reports 

 received from Europe and from de- 

 scriptions in European bee journals 

 and books, it is the prevalent one 

 there. There is another diseased con- 

 dition, which Cheyne examined, and 

 to which we now refer as European 

 foul brood. 



When the author began his work 

 on bee diseases in the summer of 1902 

 he observed,in combs containing Amer- 

 ican foul brood, in the dried remains 

 of the dead larvae, known as the 

 scales, a very large number of spores 

 which failed to grow when inoculated 

 into the media ordinarily used in the 

 laboratory. It was clear, then, that 

 these spores are not Bacillus alvei and 

 that this disease is not the "foul 

 brood" of Cheshire and Cheyne. The 

 following year the study was con- 

 tinued and a medium was devised in 

 which the spores found in this dis- 

 ease will germinate. This medium 

 consists of an agar made by follow- 

 ing the directions ordinarily used in 

 the laboratory, with the exception that 

 bee larvae are substituted for meat. 

 By the use of this medium were ob- 

 tained pure cultures of the microor- 

 >ganism which is found so abundantly, 

 in the form of spores, in the dried 

 scales of American foul brood. 



In reporting these findings the au- 

 thor referred to this organism as 

 "Bacillus X." Further study was sub- 

 sequently made, and the species was 

 given the permanent name. Bacillus 

 larvae. The description of this species 

 may be found in Technical Series No. 

 14 of this Bureau. In his publications 

 the author has made no claim that Ba- 

 cillus larvae is the cause of American 

 foul brood, but has made the statement 

 that it is found to be present in all the 

 samples of this disease which have 

 been examined by him. No inocula- 

 tion experiments were made, for the 

 reason that sufficient cultures in suit- 

 able condition could not be obtained 

 from any medium then known. 



Since the media used in former in- 

 vestigations are not suitable for ob- 

 taining cultures for purposes of inoc- 

 ulation, in taking up the further study 

 it has been necessary to devise a me- 



