American Bee Journal 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WAGNER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



AT TWO DOLLARS PER ANNUM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



Vol. IV. 



FEBRUARY, 1869. 



No. 8. 



[Communicated for the American Beo Journal.] 



Foulbrood, 

 Microscopical Investigation into its 

 Nature and Origin. 



I have much pleasure in laying before the 

 readers of the Bee Journal the following 

 translation of a very interesting paper which 

 appeared in the last number of the Bienenzeit- 

 ung, and shall be glad if Mr. Quinby and 

 other observers who arc interested in the sub- 

 ject will favor us with their opinions upon the 

 theory which is therein promulgated. Its au- 

 thor, T)r. Preuss, of Dirschau, is a physician of 

 great eminence and wide-spread reputation, 

 "Sanitiitsrath," or Sanitary # Counsellor, being 

 an honorary title conferred by the Prussian 

 Government only upon distinguished members 

 of the medical profession. Whatever we may 

 think of the fungoid theory which he advances, 

 it must be conceded that he is tolerably correct 

 in his treatment of the disease, and that we 

 have to thank him for a very able and laborious 

 effort to dispel the mystery which has so long 

 enshrouded its origin, as well as the mode in 

 which, under certain circumstances, it becomes 

 so rapidly developed and propagated. 



T. W. Woodbury, 

 ("A Devonshire Bee-keeper.") 



Mount Radford, Exeter, Eng., Oct. 21, 1868. 



The Existence op Virulent Foulbrood 

 Dependent upon a Microscopic Fungus, 

 Cryptococcus Alvearis. — It Can be Pre- 

 vented and Cured. 



Although I have seen boe-keeping carried on 

 from my earliest childhood, and have myself 

 pursued it during seventeen years, in Dzierzon 

 aud straw hives, with German, Italian, and 

 Egyptian bees, and have taken occasion to ex- 

 amine numerous apiaries in the valley of the 

 Vistula from Dantzic to Plock, in Poland, it 

 was not until 1866 that I anywhere met with 

 foulbrood. 



Bee-keeping in the Vistula valley is generally 

 carried on in straw hives, and is very prosper- 

 ous owing to the rich pasturage furnished first 

 by the extensive fields of rape-seed, then by the 



white clover, and in the autumn by the wild 

 mustard. In the neighborhood of Dirschau 

 and Dantzic there are, indeed, numerous api- 

 aries of Dzierzon hives, and at Giitland, one 

 mile from Dirschau, my friend Wannow keeps 

 bees entirely in hives of this description. 



Two years ago, whilst he still possessed a 

 magnificent apiary of seventy hives, mostly in 

 bee-houses, he called my attention to the fact 

 that foulbrood had made its appearance among 

 them. We did not at that time lay any partic° 

 ular stress upon it, and this is an error against 

 which we can scarcely warn bee-keepers suffi- 

 ciently. When I visited him again shortly 

 afterwards, I was astonished at finding this 

 beautiful apiary dwindled to one-half its former 

 number, aud still continuing diseased. I im- 

 mediately purposed to devote myself to the in- 

 vestigation of this horrible malady, especially 

 to the microscopical examination of the foul- 

 broody substance ; and I here communicate the 

 result. 



The statement of Von Molitor-Muhlfeld, of 

 Mannheim, that a saw-fly is the cause of this 

 disease, we have not found confirmed in a single 

 instance, the minute perforations which some- 

 times exist in the cell-covers being made by the 

 bees. Never have we, either with magnifier or 

 microscope, found in the cells the eggs or mag- 

 gots of saw-flies ; never have we found in the 

 hive even the saw-flies themselves. Neither 

 can we indorse the theory of Dr. Assmuss, that 

 the disease is produced by the larva of Phora 

 incrassata. 



Foulbrood, as is well known, has a viscous, 

 gelatinous, and yeast-like appearance, and an 

 unpleasant odor. Foulbroody cells may be re- 

 cognised by their sunken covers. 



In order to be able to set about the microscop- 

 cal investigation of this decease, it is necessarv 

 to possess a microscope which has a magnifying 

 power of at least 200 to 400 diameters. Mine is 

 an excellent instrument by Brunuer, of Paris 

 and my observations have been made with a 

 magnifying power of 600 diameters. It 

 possesses also a micrometer which will measure 

 to the ten-thousandth part of a millimetre or the 

 twenty-thousandth part of a line. 



It is also essential that we operate very neatly 



