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



AT TWO DOLLARS PEK ANNUM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



Vol. VI. 



@EI?TE313E5i^:i?, IS'TO. 



No, 3. 



[Translated for the American Bee Journal.] 



The Foulbr.od Question. 



The following remarks, made by tlie Rev. Mr. 

 Kleine, before a convention of bee-keepers in the 

 town of Meppen, j^rovince of Hanover, Prussia, 

 present a succinct account of the present state 

 of this subject abroad. 



' ' The question propounded in our programme, ' ' 

 said Mr. Kleine, "and which I have been re- 

 quested to consider, may properly be thus sub- 

 divided — first, lias any efficient remedy for foul- 

 brood been devised? and, secondly, What are 

 we to think of Lambrecht's theory? 



"I wish I could answer the first interrogatory 

 with a positive aye. If I could, I should regard 

 myself entitled not only to your thanks, but to 

 those of the entire bee-keeping community ; for 

 foulbrood is confessedly the direst evil that can 

 befall the bee-keeper, and the appearance is, at 

 present, that it is likely speedily to spread every- 

 where, where bees are cultivated. 



"Remedies in abundance have, indeed been 

 suggested, and recorjimended as efficient and in- 

 fallible But when we come to investigate them, 

 we seek in vain for any solid reason why cura- 

 tive qualities should be attributed to them ; and 

 we usually find that the alleged lecovery of dis- 

 eased colonies can fairly be ascribed to some- 

 thing else than the application of those va anted 

 remedies. Possibly, too, the real disease, — the 

 genuine, A'irulent, contagious foulbrood, did not 

 exist, and the boasted cure consisted merely in 

 the apparent arrest and removal of some simple 

 malady whicii, in the course of nature, would 

 speedily have run its harmless course and disap- 

 peared, and with the cure of which the medica- 

 ments or treatment emjjloyed had, in reality, nO' 

 connection whatever. How indeed can it be 

 possible to devise and apply an efficient remedy 

 for a disease of the origin and nature of whicli 

 entire ignorance has still prevailed. 



"Dr. Asmusz conceived, some years ago, that 

 he had discovered the cause of foulbrood in a 

 minute winged insect — the Pho,a i/icrassaUi ; 

 and the Baron of Berlejisch coincided with him 

 in opiiuon. The doctor supposed that the parent 

 fly deposited her eggs in the larvas of the bee^, 

 which, dying in consequence and putrifying, 

 thus generated the devastating disease. It liap- 

 Ijens, however, that the Phoridie do not deposit 



their eggs in living organisms, but, under the 

 impulse of native instinct, in dead bodies only. 

 Consequently it does not and cannot cause the 

 dreaded disease. 



"Again, Mr. De Molitor assigns to it a similar 

 origin,— but instead of the Phora, regards some 

 ichneumon-lly as the perpetrator of the evil — 

 unless, indeed, he regards the Phora itself as an 

 ichneumon. But this notion, too, is obviously 

 untenable, for if iehneumon-llies laid their eggs 

 in the larvaj, tliose eggs must surely hatch and 

 the insect develofj there, at least in its first stages ; 

 but on placing a foulbroody comb under glass, 

 and watching it closely, nothing of this sort is 

 found to take jilace. 



"The Baroness of Berleiisch supposes the 

 cause of foulbrood is to be found in the use of 

 movable comb hives, and the various manipula- 

 tions — oftimes needless— whicli the facilities af- 

 forded tempt the apiiirian to undertake. Were 

 this diagnosis correct, the remedy could readily 

 be found. It would only be necessary to discon- 

 tinue the use of such hives, and return to the 

 ancient fixed comb system, to be safe from tlie 

 inroads of this pestilence. But alas, it is only 

 too well known tliat foulbrood existed exten- 

 sively long before Dzierzon was born, and that 

 it prevails where the fixed comb system is most 

 rigidly adhered to. 



" Others imagine that the disease has its origin 

 in malarious vapors, in some kind of fungus, in 

 a diseased condition of the sexual organs of the 

 queen, in an imperfect fecundation of the egg, 

 or even in a noxious state of the fluids of the 

 bee-keeper's body. Arc, without, however, by 

 any of these surmises or suggestions, furnishing 

 us with an available clue to a remedy, from the 

 application of which a favorable result might be 

 expected. Obscurity and doubt still involve the 

 inquirer, and he quietly 'gives it up ;' while the 

 more practical bee-keeper, pei'plexed and baffled, 

 finally resolves to resort to the radical remedy 

 of the brimstone pit and the ' parlor match' — 

 thus eftectually curing his colonies. 



"So matters stood in regard to this puzzling- 

 question, till, in consequence of a communica- 

 tion from the Directors of the Central Commit- 

 tee of the Hanover Agricultural Society, respect- 

 ing an alleged cure of foulbrood which Mr. 

 Fisher claimed to have devised and successfully 

 employed, the Hanover Centralblatt opened its 

 columns for further discussion of the topic. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, }<v Samuel Wagner, in the ofEce of the Librarian of Congress, at 



Washington. 



