THE AMEEICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



101 



undergone only partial decomposition, must 

 affect the bodies of bees and of larvae differently 

 from what it did or would do in its natural con- 

 dition ; and there is no longer a doubt that it is 

 from pollen thus partially decomposed that foul- 

 brood originates. That it can very readily un- 

 dergo decomposition is manifest. Moisture, 

 emanating in part from the unsealed honey, 

 and in part from the perspiration of the bees, 

 becomes condensed in the hive from external 

 cold; and in the fall and towards spring it is fre- 

 quently found hanging in drops on the combs, 

 just as we find it condensed on the windows of 

 our dwelling houses. If now one of these drops 

 falls into a cell containing pollen, decomposi- 

 tion of the hitter speedily commences, and is 

 then communicated by the bees to the pollen in 

 other cells ; and the cause of foulbrood is hence 

 abundantly present in a hive thus circumstan- 

 ced. This, too, explains the natural disinclina- 

 tion of bees to store water in their culls. Their 

 practice is to carry in barely so much water as 

 their immediate wants require, and carefully 

 lick up every drop of condensed moisture as 

 soon as the internal temperature of the hive 

 permits them to do so. The observation of this 

 fact has doubtless induced many bee keepers to 

 believe in "water-dearth," in hives, and even 

 to write about it ; though bees are obviously 

 averse to having water stored in their hives and 

 remove it promptly whenever feasible. They are 

 perfectly aware that moisture produces mould- 

 iness, and that this destroys their pollen and 

 may lead to the introduction of a fatal disease. 

 This, however, only by way of a passing re- 

 mark. Let us return to the further considera- 

 tion of the problem in hand. 



At first blush the suggestion that decomposing 

 pollen is the cause of foulbrood may seem im- 

 probable, inasmuch as the brood has partaken 

 of it from the first moment of its existence ; 

 and yet, till it has advanced so far towards ma- 

 turity as to be closed up in its cell to undergo 

 its final metamorphosis, the larva seems to have 

 been in no degree affected by the deteriorated 

 quality of its food or the lurking malady thereby 

 induced. Nevertheless, the seeming contradic- 

 tion will disappear on closer investigation, and 

 the blame will again fall on the contaminated 

 pollen. So long as the larva was fed with 

 chyme already digested in the stomach of the 

 bee, the aliment was partially deprived of its 

 noxious properties by the change it underwent 

 in the bee's stomach, having its oiiginal nutri- 

 tious qualities in great measure restored. Con- 

 sequently the larva? fed therewith developed in 

 an entirely normal manner, until ready for cap- 

 ping. It is possible, moreover, that the decom- 

 position of the pollen may have been arrested 

 or suspended by the action of the bee's stomach, 

 or at least so acted on thereby that its admix- 

 ture could not essentially deteriorate the nu- 

 tritious property of the chyme. Similar 

 changes are easily effected. Thus it has been 

 observed that yeast, a ready generator of fer- 

 mentation, when triturated with a muller, loses 

 the property of exciting alcoholic fermentation; 

 though it can still, in that state, convert sugar 

 into lactic acid, &c. We conceive that this is 

 no inapt illustration, if the stomach of the bee 



be regarded as a triturating apparatus by which 

 the pollen was deprived of the greater portion 

 of its noxious properties. But when the larva 

 receives undigested chyme, the progressive de. 

 composition is at once communicated to the 

 tissues of its insect organism, which, incapable 

 of resisting or neutralizing the noxious inllu- 

 ence, are at once destroyed, and foulbrood must 

 necessarily be the result. 



Even when the chyme has been digested, that 

 is, made edible and nourishing, and the larva? 

 receive it in this form, its fermentative power, as 

 in the case of the triturated yeast, may have 

 been changed, but not destroyed. A process ot 

 fermentation still takes place, resulting, how- 

 ever, in other products ; and an accumulation 

 of these in the delicate tissues of the larva?, we 

 may readily conceive would naturally and ne- 

 cessarily lead to death and putrefaction. 

 Every substance capable of generating fermen- 

 tation possesses the peculiar power of being able 

 to communicate it to every fermentable body 

 with which it comes in contact, and superin- 

 ducing continuous decomposition till putrefac- 

 tion is completed. The duration of the pro- 

 cess is longer or shorter, indeed, according to the 

 quantity of ferment present, or the greater or 

 smaller amount of fermentable matter to 

 be decomposed. "When we now reflect 

 how infinitely small is the portion of de- 

 composing pollen matter which is mixed with 

 the chyme in the stomach of the worker, we 

 shall readily conceive that its effects will show 

 themselves only after some lapse of time, cor- 

 responding in this case with the natural pro- 

 gress of development in the larva, and reach- 

 ing its acme only after the larva is sealed up in 

 its cell. 



A. Lambrecht. 



Bornuji. 



(Conclusion next month.) 



[From the (London) Gardener's Chronicle.] 



American Bee Journal. 



I have both this month and last, through the 

 kindness of some unknown apiarian friend on 

 the other side of the water, received a copy of 

 the "American Bee Journal," for which 

 courtesy I beg to thank him through the medium 

 of the Gardeners'' Chronicle. There are in the 

 Journal some admirable papers on bee-man- 

 agement, both from original sources and culled 

 from the German Bienenzcitung. 



The correspondent styling himself "Novice" 

 says: — "About rye and oats this spring, Mr. 

 Editor, it would have done you good to have 

 seen them, in case you have never seen a simi- 

 lar sight. We had provided about a bushel and 

 a half [the italics are my own] supposing that 

 to be plenty. But as if remembering their last 

 year's education, they opened on it with aston- 

 ishing vigor, and consumed nearly all of it on 

 the first two or three pleasant days. After the 

 rye and oat meal was all gone, we gave them 

 wheat flour until our better half 'feared that 

 the bees would eat us out of house and home.' 

 They became seemingly almost demented, and 



