142 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



ami with as little contamination as possible. 

 The investigation is best conducted when the 

 blue sky sheds its light on the Held of the in- 

 strument — not the direct rays of the sun or a 

 reflected light from a building or such like. A 

 retired room that is unshaken by passing vehi- 

 cles, ami a firmly fixed table are also required. 

 The instrument itself should be levelled in a 

 horizontal plane. 



A great many observers as well as beginners 

 commit the mistake of placing too great a body 

 of matter on the glass slide, in which case noth- 

 ing can be seen but a chaotic mass. It was 

 against this error that my respected and highly 

 honored preceptor, Ehrenberg, of Berlin, warn- 

 ed his scholars the most. 



When the microscope is properly adjusted, 

 we dip the end of a clean and very slight rod, 

 either of glass or wood, into a foul broody cell, 

 and by this means deposite a particle of the 

 matter about the size of a grain of sand (a por- 

 tion even of the size of a millet grain would be 

 too large) upon a very perfect glass slide scru- 

 pulously cleaned by means of wash-leather. 

 We then dip another rod in freshly distilled 

 water, or in fresh rain water caught in a clean' 

 porcelain vessel (if the water be not fresh it 

 becomes impregnated with organic matter, 

 whilst spring water would deposite crystals and 

 thus vitiate the operation) and by means of this 

 perfectly clean rod dipped in absolutely pure 

 water, we deposite a drop of the size of a mil- 

 let grain, and no more, on the particle of foul- 

 brood of the size of a grain of sand, which by 

 this means diffuses itself a little in tbe water. 

 The Avhole being covered with a thin glass 

 about the thickness of a poppy-leaf, we have a 

 preparation by means of which long and careful 

 studies can be made. If we place it under the 

 microscope we see a thousand dust-like bodies 

 which are known to the micologist as fungi, 

 and which belong to the species Cryptococcus 

 (Kiitzing). These are best seen at the edges of 

 the mass where they are scattered singly; butif 

 the observer has neglected the precautions be- 

 fore indicated he will not be able to detect the 

 fungi singly, nor will he indeed see anything 

 of which he can undertake the examination. 

 If we find different sized bodies, the larger are 

 fatty particles, the remains of the bee-chrysalis, 

 and those which are smallest of all and dust- 

 like are the fungi. 



The foulbrood fungus, which I have named 

 Cryptococcus alvearis, belongs to the smallest of 

 fungoid forms. It is round and dust-shaped, 

 and" has a diameter of l-500th millimetre, or 

 l-i095th line. Consequently 1095 can lie side 

 by side within a Rhenish line, but within a 

 square line 1095 x 1095— that is, 1,199,825, oi in 

 round numbers, 1,200,000. The cubic line, ac- 

 cording to this would contain 1,440,000,000,000 

 lungi ; and a cubic inch of foulbrood, which 

 consists of 1728 lines, would contain 2,488,320,- 

 000,000,000. If we reckon further that a cubic 

 inch of comb contains 50 cells the contents of 

 each cell would be 49,766,400.000,000— in round 

 numbers, fifty billions, or deducting one-fifth 

 for wax, forty billions of fungi. 



It is only this enormous capability of increase 

 which renders foulbrood so dangerous, as is, in- 



deed, the case with the cholera, typhus, and 

 small-pox fungi, &c. 



Foulbrood is no more a poison than is any 

 strong rank-growing weed ; it merely supplants 

 that which otherwise would live and thrive. It 

 is closely allied to the fermentive fungus, Cryp- 

 tococcus fermentum, which by its rapid increase 

 in fluids capable of fermentation, transmutes 

 them, and, after it has consumed all the ele- 

 ments which are capable of serving for its re- 

 production, precipitates itself in the form of 

 lees. Beer and wine lees are in like manner a* 

 conglomeration of microscopic fungi. 



The actual nature of foulbrood being clearly 

 defined, everything else follows of itself. The 

 extraordinary facility with which it may be 

 communicated must be indubitable ; so long as 

 it lies jelly-like and covered in the cells it is 

 perhaps the least dangerous ; but when it rests 

 dry, and like a black crust on the edges of the 

 cells, or falling down within the hive is scatter- 

 ed abroad like dust, then billions of sporules are 

 sown broadcast. They adhere to the feet of the 

 bees, enter the cells filled with young brood, 

 become transferred to other hives, through 

 resting on flowers, &c, and thus the disease 

 may be spread in a thousandfold manner. 



It is well known that it is not the larva, but 

 the sealed chrysalis that first dies of foulbrood 

 and is then consumed by it. Tiie fungus, how- 

 ever, first attaches itself to the larva, but in 

 trifling quantity, for some thousand sporules 

 caunot injure it ; so pass the six days of its lar- 

 val life. It has within itself the germ of death, 

 but yet it lives. When in the nymphoid state it 

 is killed by the fungus multiplying prodigiously 

 in geometrical progression, whico. also continues 

 to increase after the death and at the expense of 

 the chrysalis, which it ultimately changes en- 

 tirely into itself. 



I should define the distinction made by Dzier- 

 son, between non-contagious and virulent foul- 

 brood as consisting in this — that non-contagious 

 foulbrood means the death of the larva from 

 other causes, and virulent foulbrood the death ot 

 the larva from foulbrood fungus. 



With respect to the origin of foulbrood, inde- 

 pendently of infection, we have seen above that 

 the foulbrood and fermentive fungi are of the 

 same species, and it is also known that fungi, 

 especially the microscopic kinds, change and 

 transform one into the other, according to the 

 different substances upon which they alight. 



It is in this way highly probable that the fer- 

 mentive fungus Cryptococcus fermentum, may 

 when it comes in contact with, or when as food 

 it enters the body of the bee larva, change it- 

 self, under peculiar conditions of temperature 

 and moisture, into Cryptococcus alvearis, or foul- 

 brood fungus. 



All practical bee-keepers complain of feeding 

 with fermenting honey as the principal cause ot 

 foulbrood, and fermenting honey arises in the 

 first instance if, when the honey is taken pos- 

 session of, the sealed or open combs containing 

 brood are not carefully separated from the 

 honeycombs, in which case the honey becomes 

 mingled with albumen, and is useless for feed- 

 ing. We cannot, therefore, be too careful in 

 using honey for bee-food. 



