PUBLISHE.D EVERY WEEK 







AT SI.OO PER ANNUM. 





37 th Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., JANUARY 28, 1897. 



No. 4. 



Foul Brood — Life History and Treatment. 



[A pamphlet, " Foul Brood and its Treatment," has re- 

 cently been issued from the pen of Thos. Wm. Cowan, editor 

 of the British Bee Journal, and author of other works on the 

 subject of bees. This little treatise begins by showing the 

 importance of the industry of bee-keeping and the valuable 

 service performed by the bees in the fertilization of fruit- 

 bloom The author then draws attention to the one great 

 pest of bees — foul brood. After giving a historical retrospect, 

 and the nature of the disease, he sets forth the life history, 

 which I copy in full, as it shows what foul brood is, and what 

 it looks like — both the appearance of the comb having the 

 disease, and the disease germs themselves, as viewed from the 

 microscope. So far as I know, there has never yet been a 

 photograph of a comb of foul brood, and I take pleasure in 

 presenting one, copied from the work above mentioned. Mr. 

 Cowan says: — Editor.] 



LIFE HISTOKY OF FOUL BROOD. 



" It will be necessary to give only a brief outline of the 

 life history of Bacillus alvei to enable us to understand some- 

 what of the nature of this disease. 





Fig. 1— Foul Brood In (in Advanced Stage. 



" Bacillus alvei Is a pathogenic or disease-producing micro- 

 organism, in form cylindrical or rod-shaped, and increasing 

 by splitting or fissuratlon. The rods increase in length with- 



out growing thicker, and at a certain point divide and sep- 

 arate in two, to again increase, divide, and separate.^ Some- 

 times, In suitable nourishing media the lengthening of the 

 rod is not accompanied by separation, but only by repeated 

 division into longer or shorter chains of bacillus filaments, or 

 leptothrix. The rods are also provided with a flagellum at one 

 end, and are endowed with the power of locomotion. Under 



Fig. 2— Healthy Juices. Firj. 3— Early Stage. 



certain conditions bacilli have the power of forming spores, in 

 which case a speck appears at a particular point of the ba- 

 cillus, which gradually enlarges and develops into an oval, 

 highly refractive body, thicker but shorter than the original 

 rod. The spore grows at the expense of the protoplasm of the 

 cell, which In time disappears, setting free the spore. The 

 latter formation closes the cycle of the life* history of the 

 bacillus. The spores— representing the seeds — retain the 



Fig. 4 — Lat4;r Stage. Fig. 3 — Last Stage. 



power of germinating into bacilli when Introduced into a suit- 

 able nourishing medium, and at a proper temperature, even 

 after the lapse of long periods of time. At germination the 



