THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



83 



Supposing the disease has already taken ground 

 the next question is, what is to be done to remove 

 it ? First of all it must not be neglected, but 

 treated as promptly as a ease of glanders in a 

 horse. Of course every kind of food liable to fer- 

 mentation is eminently dangerous and absolute- 

 ly interdicted. There is no physic to destroy 

 the fungus of the foulbrood ! This it is impor- 

 tant to know, because it prevents loss of time in 

 quackery. If there is no physic, available 

 against the disease, the old maxim of Hippo- 

 crates is to be taken into favorable considera- 

 tion : — " quae medicamenta nou sanant, ferrum 

 sauat ; quae ferrum non sanat, ignis sanat.' 1 

 Iron ought therefore to be the first remedy re- 

 sorted to. Every hive should be most carefully 

 examined and every diseased cell cut out. If 

 that prove fruitless, have resource promptly to 

 fire. Do not spare your apiary ; burn every 

 comb that shows the least sign of foulbrood, 

 for fire alone is able to destroy the dangerous 

 fungi. Sound combs are to be transferred to 

 clean hives ; though it is not absolutely neces- 

 sary to burn the infected ones. If they be 

 washed, inside and outside, with diluted sul- 

 pburic acid — one pound to ten pounds of water 

 —and rinsed thoroughly with boiling water, 

 the fungi are sure to be destroyed. It would 

 also be well to put the hives in a baker's oven, 

 and leave them there several hours, in a decree 

 of heat equal to that of boiling water. The 

 same result would be attained too, by placing 

 them for some days in a room heated to 122 de- 

 grees of Fahrenheit. The heat would penetrate 

 every crevice and destroy the fungi. 



When Dr. Preuss was a medical student in 

 Berlin, thirty-five years ago, the Hospital of 

 Charity there was visited, in a most alarming 

 manner, by puerperal fever and hospital-gan- 

 grene. Lying-in women and persons suffering 

 from wounds or abscesses sunk quickly under 

 these attacks. There was no remedy, and 

 every precaution was ineffectual. At last all 

 the sick were removed, and the rooms heated 

 for weeks to 122 degrees Farenheit. When the 

 patients were then brought in again, the di- 

 seases had entirely disappeared. Probably 

 some noxious fungus had been destroyed by the 

 heat. 



The ground floor of the apiary should also be 

 frequently sprinkled with dilute sulphuric acid, 

 and the ground spaded up. A better plan, if 

 practicable, would be to remove the apiary to 

 some other spot, after having thoroughly clean- 

 ed the h'ves. This done, Dr. Preuss thinks 

 that infection by the bees themselves need not 

 be apprehended. He advises therefore to kill 

 them only in the last resort, if there is no other 

 remedy remaining. The middle of June he 

 considers the best time to place them into cleaned 

 or new hives, because they would then still be 

 able to build combs and supply themselves with 

 honey for the ensuing winter. It ought how- 

 ever to be done simultaneously throughout the 

 apiary, or the diseased stocks may again infest 

 the sound ones. The next duty is To visit the 

 s ocks regularly, and remove every infected 

 comb, if any be found. Then, and then only, 

 will it be possible to eradicate the disease. 



As great physicians discover the required 



treatment of diseases, before ascertaining their 

 precise nature and origin, so Dzierzon and Ber- 

 lepsch gave most of the rules mentioned above, 

 without being sure of the substance of foul- 

 brood. They advised particularly not to re- 

 sort to quackery ; and that counsel cannot be 

 too emphatically impressed on the bee-keeper. 



Dr. Preuss is confident that a careful ob- 

 servance of his prescriptions will eradicate and 

 cure foulbrood. 



Baron Berlepsch considers the discovery of 

 Dr. Preuss one of great importance ; and I 

 accordingly tried to treat the subject in a for- 

 eign language, for the benefit of the glorious in- 

 sect and all its friends and cultivators. I am 

 proud to give the first notice of the discovery to 

 America, hoping and trusting that my friendly 

 attempt will be understood and appreciated. 

 Lina, Baroness Berlepsch. 



Coburg, Sept. 14, 1868. 



[Communicated for the American Bee Journal], 



From Italy. 



My esteemed friend, Mr. Charles Dadant, of 

 Hamilton, Illinois, has communicated to me 

 translations of several articles selected from the 

 American Bee Journal, which I read with 

 great interest. In return, allow me to send 

 some brief comments and remarks on Italian 

 bee-culture. 



I learn with much gratification, from the ar- 

 ticles received, that Young America is striving 

 to advance beyond other nations, in bee-culture, 

 as well as in general progress and civilization ; 

 and we may surely ascribe a portion of this to the 

 American Bee Journal, which by its excel- 

 lent communications and selections awakens 

 and stimulates a more active interest among 

 bee-keepers. 



I sincerely wish that as much could be said 

 of Italy, in these respects. But, alas, bee cul- 

 ture is still greatly in arrear in this country. 

 Most bee-keepers have still no idea of the great 

 advance made latterly in other countries, nor 

 any conception of an improved system of bee- 

 culture, founded on a rational mode of manage- 

 ment. With few exceptions, they pay no atten- 

 tion to their bees, except during the swarming 

 season, when the swarms are hived in gums 

 or plain boxes, which are commonly set in some 

 spot where, without shelter or protection, they 

 are exposed to the scorchiug rays of the noon- 

 day sun, and simply consigned to the care of 

 Providence. In autumn, the swarms of the 

 previous season, containing the old queens, are 

 reserved for wintering ; and frequently very 

 superior parent stocks, containing the young 

 queens, are doomed to the brimstone pit. 

 Then, too, it not unfrequently happens that the 

 owner of an apiary finds many of the hives 

 from which he expected abundant returns en- 

 tirely bare of honey ; and in not a few of them 

 neither honey nor bees, nor aught besides a dark 

 and chaotic filmy mass and Mack excreta on the 

 bottom-board, with an array of empty cocoons 

 in close ranks on the iuuer top and sides of ths 

 hive— furnishing ocular demonstration of the 



