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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



cent pollen placed in contact with a solution of 

 honey, can generate new substances possessing 

 different and peculiar properties; and that con- 

 sequently the utmost caution is requisite, when 

 harvesting honey, not to mingle with it any de- 

 composing substance. The result of the admix- 

 ture of putrescent pollen would be decomposi- 

 tion (fermentation, as we term it) and the liber- 

 ation of a glutinous substance contained in the 

 pollen, which is the ferment whereby, in the 

 body of the bee, wax is eleminated from 

 saccharine, and from which the organism of the 

 insect probably derives its formative tendency 

 in appropriating nitrogenous nutriment. Thus, 

 without pollen no ferment, without ferment no 

 secretion of wax by the bees, and without this 

 process no bees. 



If not altogether as thus indicated, still in a 

 manner substantially analogous, do those pollen 

 particles operate which have, by means of the 

 ferment they contain, been brought into state of 

 putrescence, and being mixed with the chyme 

 prepared for the brood, are introduced into the 

 delicate bodies of the larvse, and there brought 

 in close contact with other readily decomposa- 

 ble substances. So long as the workers di- 

 gested the chyme adminisistered, the action of 

 destructive element lurking therein was in large 

 measure suppressed and its destroying force 

 mitigated. But when this preparatory action 

 ceases, and the delicate creatures receive for 

 food honey and fermenting pollen undigest- 

 ed, they partake of that "whose mortal taste" 

 brings death unto them. The fermenting pollen 

 particles, or rather the putrescent matter into 

 which they have been converted, becomes im- 

 mediately desseminated through their organism. 

 This is speedily destroyed and decomposed, and 

 the amazed and dismayed beekeeper finds the 

 cells filled with a putrid and fetid mass, which 

 when dried up is partially thrown out by the 

 surviving workers. Behold here, foulbrood in 

 its incipiency, and running on to fatal maturi- 

 ty. The deadly miasmatic gases (sulphureted 

 hydrogen, ammonia) developed from the ever 

 increasing number of dead and decomposing 

 larva 1 , affect nearly the entire mass of brood, 

 and multitudes of mature bees perish, till the 

 whole colony succumbs and the entire apiary 

 and those of the vicinage are infected, unless by 

 some timely remedy the progress of the malady 

 is arrested. 



We shall here indicate only briefly how foul- 

 brood is disseminated. We call the substance 

 which transmits disease from one body and 

 place to another, miasm — which is usually un- 

 derstood to emanate from decaying and puttify- 

 ing animal or vegetable matter. It is hence like- 

 wise generated in hives that are suffering from 

 foulbrood. Miasms are probably composed of 

 minute particles of matter in a putrescent state, 

 which floating in the air diffuse the contagion in 

 every direction in which they are borne. They 

 may thus find access to hives through the en- 

 trance, or be carried in by the beea to whose 

 bodies they adhere; and the disease may likewise 

 be earned from a foulbroody hive to a healthy 

 one, if the bees of the latter pilfer the former of 

 its sweets. Analogous observations have been 

 made of the diffusion of malarious diseases 



from marshy districts, whereby the morbid mat- 

 ter of typhoid and other epidemics has been 

 spread over large areas; and which is attributed 

 to the inhalation of the sporules of a species of 

 fungus found in such districts. The fatal dis- 

 ease, too, to which silkworms are subject, — 

 known as muscardine — springs from a species 

 of fungus developed in the bodies of the worms 

 and fostered and spread by the contaminated at- 

 mosphere of the cocoonery. 



It is hence apparent, that foulbrood may be 

 communicated from infected to healthy colonies 

 by means of miasmatic corpuscles; and it is this 

 circumstance precisely which give the disease 

 its fearful character; and it is to the progress of 

 chemical science that we are indebted for the 

 means of controlling and counteracting this 

 danger properly, and of finally subduing and 

 eradicating the evil. Indeed, a more intimate 

 acquaintance with nature, and with the powers 

 and resources of science, serves more and more 

 to elucidate many mysterious points, and aids in 

 the solution of many a puzzling problem — 

 enabling us to diminish or prevent some of the 

 ills of life, or helping us greatly to enhance its 

 enjoyments. 



We shall in due course state the remedial 

 means to be resorted to for the eradication of 

 the evil, after giving a brief resume of what has 

 already been said respecting its nature and 

 source. 



The name of the disease certainly indicates its 

 character plainly enough — the brood becomes 

 putrid. As the nitrogenous pollen readily un- 

 dergoes decomposition under the influence of 

 heat and moisture; and as this result can easily 

 be produced by the vapor and humid exhala- 

 tions condensed in the hive, just as we often see 

 it on the windows of our houses; and as the pu- 

 trescent matters are able to cause similar putre- 

 faction in nitrogenous substances with which 

 they are placed in communication or contact; and 

 especially as the nursing bees mix the putrescent 

 pollen with honey when preparing food for the 

 larvas, these at once become affected by the con- 

 tagion and perish. Consequently foulbrood is 

 only the result of the progressive putrescent de- 

 composition of pollen particles within the lar- 

 vae, which destroys the bees in their incipient, 

 existence as brood, and by contagion or mias- 

 matic diffusion spreads itself from hive to hive 

 and from one apiary to another. 



"A dreadfully devastating malady!" ex- 

 claimed an old beekeeper, on hearing foulbrood 

 mentioned, "it brought me to the brink of ruin, 

 by the destruction of more than forty of my col- 

 onies." We could in fact give this hrood -pesti- 

 lence no more appropriate name; and the mag- 

 nitude of the evil was sufficient ground to seek 

 for or devise means by the application of which 

 we can avert the serious injury it is calculated to 

 inflict. Relief was indeed sought for in empirical 

 prescriptions and specific nostiums, but with no 

 benefit whatever, as they were aimed at the con- 

 sequences ot the malady, and not against the 

 malady itself. Finally, recourse was invariably 

 had to the beekeepers' catholicon — the brim- 

 stone pit, as the certain and efficient cure-all. 

 Undoubtedly, when the case seemed hopeless, 

 the continued spread of the disease was enough 



