50 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jaa. 28, 



spore first loses its brilliancy, swells up, and eventually its 

 membrane bursts in the middle. The inner part of the spore 

 then projects through the opening, and grows to a new rod. 



"The spores also possess the power of enduring adverse 

 influences of various kinds without injury to their vitality, so 

 far as germinating is concerned, even if subjected to influences 

 fatal to bacilli themselves. The latter are destroyed at the 

 temperature of boiling water, while the spore apparently 

 suffers no damage at that temperature. Freezing also kills 

 the bacilli, but not the spores. In the same way chemical 

 reagents, completely destructive of the bacilli, do not affect 

 the vitality of the spores. Carbolic acid, phenol, thymol, 

 salicylic acid, naphthol beta, perchloride of mercury, and 

 many other substances, even when considerably diluted, pre- 

 vent the growth of bacilli, but have no effect whatever upon 

 the spores. The great resistance of spores to high and low 

 temperatures, to acids and other substances, is due to their 

 being incased within a thick double membrane. 



"There are certain chemical substances which evaporate 

 at the ordinary temperature of the hive, and whose vapors, 

 while not actually killing the bacilli, arrest their increase or 

 growth. Among such substances are carbolic acid, phenol 

 (or creolin), lysol, eucalyptus, camphor, naphthalene, and 

 several others. 



" If a healthy larva be taken, and a small quantity of the 

 juice from its body spread on a glass slide be placed under 

 the microscope, we shall see a number of fat-globules and 

 blood discs (Fig. 2), among which molecules are in constant 

 motion. If, on the other hand, a young larva diseased, but 

 not yet dead, be treated as above, its juices will, when sub- 

 jected to a similar examination, be seen to contain a great 

 number of active rods swimming backward and forward 

 among the blood-discs and fat globules, which latter, as will 

 be noticed (Fig. 3), are fewer than those In the juices of a 

 healthy larva. We shall also find, as the disease makes rapid 

 progress, chains of bacilli — the leptothrix form — becoming 

 common. In Fig. 4 we have a representation of a latter 

 stage of the disease when the larva is dead and decomposing. 

 Here the fat and albuminoids will be found disappearing, and 

 the bacilli assuming the spore condition. In Fig. 5 we see the 

 disease in its latest stage, when the whole rotten mass has 

 become coffee-colored, or has dried to a scale. Blood discs, 

 fat globules, and molecular movements have disappeared, only 

 a few bacilli are seen, and at last, as the nourishing material 

 becomes exhausted, only spores remain. 



[ — I " It will now be understood that, owing to the great resis- 

 tance of the spores, chemical substances have no effect at all 

 upon them unless administered under such conditions as 

 would destroy the bees. From this it will be seen how great 

 is the difBculty in curing foul brood unless the disease is 

 attackt iirits early stages. 



" It has previously been stated that adult bees are some- 

 times attackt by the disease. To prove this, it is only neces- 

 sary to take a weakly bee on the point of death, and examine 

 what remains of its fluids under the microscope, when 'a large 

 number of active bacilli will be found. Such bees leave the 

 hive to die, whereas the infected larvse remain in the cells, 

 unless disinfectants to arrest decomposition are used, in which 

 case the bees remove them from the hives. 



JIETHOD OF TREATMENT. 



"The superiority of the modern frame hive over the straw 

 skep is here strikingly apparent. The latter was as a sealed 

 book to its owner, who had no means of detecting the presence 

 of foul brood except by outward signs, and these, as already 

 pointed out, are only manifested when the disease is in its last 

 and most virulent stages, at which time any treatment short 

 of total destruction is entirely hopeless. The owner of a 

 movable-frame hive, on the contrary, can, by the facilities it 

 affords for examining the combs, at once detect the disease in 

 its earliest stages, and adopt measures for arresting its prog- 

 ress, or for stamping it out altogether. Unfortunately the 

 disease is seldom noticed on its first appearance ; but it has 

 nearly always to be dealt with when more or fewer spores are 

 already In the hive. 



" If, on examining combs to all appearance healthy, with 

 brood compact and larvip bright and plump, we find here and 

 there a cell with young iarvjc moving uneasily, or extended 

 horizontally instead of being curled up, and changing to a 

 pale yellow color, we at once detect the first symptoms of foul 

 brood. The further progress of the disease can, at this stage, 

 be arrested by feeding the bees with syrup, to which three 

 grains of naphthol beta are added to every pound of sugar 

 used. This is employed by the nurse-bees in preparing food 

 for the larviE. We can further assist the bees by putting 

 naphthalene or eucalyptus In the hive. The bees then usually 

 remove the dead larvae. 



"Apart, however, from experienced bee-keepers or trained 

 experts, very few are fortunate enough to detect the disease 

 at such an early stage, or to effect a cure so easily, and it be- 

 comes advisable to describe the method of procedure in ordi- 

 nary cases — that is, when the combs have irregular patches 

 of brood, with sunken and perforated cappings to the cells 

 (Fig. 1) containing the coffee-colored mass inside. 



" If the colony be weak, destruction of bees, combs, 

 frames, and quilts, together with thorough disinfection of 

 hives, is by far the best course to pursue. We thus destroy 

 the spores, and so remove the source of infection. If, on the 

 contrary, the colony be still strong, the bees may be preserved 

 by adopting the following method: An artificial swarm is 

 made of the bees, which are then placed in a straw skep and 

 fed on syrup medicated with naphthol beta. The frames, 

 combs and quilts are then burned. The hive is disinfected by 

 being either steamed or scrubbed with boiling water and soap, 

 and then painted over with a solution of carbolic acid (one 

 part of Calvert's No. .5 carbolic acid to two parts of water), 

 and when the smell has disappeared it will be ready for use. 

 The bees are allowed to remain in the skep for 48 hours, by 

 which time the honey they may have taken with them, and 

 which may contain spores, will have been consumed, and the 

 diseased bees will have died off. They are then shaken from 

 the skep into a clean frame hive furnisht with six frames, 

 fitted with full sheets of comb foundation, and are fed with 

 medicated syrup for a few days longer. The skep used as 

 their temporary home should be burned. All such work 

 should be done in the evening, when the bees have ceast 

 flying for the day, to avoid chance of robbing." 



I — I fA careful reading of the method of treatment as above 

 will make it very apparent why we, in our large experience 

 with foul brood, could not effect a y>ern\ane,nt cure of the dis- 

 ease by the application of disinfectants in the form of carbolic 

 acid, salicylic acid, and the like. While we could kill the 

 bacilli themselves with the antiseptics, we had no effect on 

 the spores, which would hatch later, and, as a consequence, 

 give rise to the disease again. We found it absolutely neces- 

 sary to burn the combs, frames, and sometimes the hives, 

 when it was not practicable to immerse them in boiling water. 



Mr. Cowan's statements, based on his investigation with 

 oue of the best microscopes, agree exactly with our quite ex- 

 tensive experience with foul brood some years ago. 



The starvation plan, in connection with burning the combs 

 and frames, and boiling the hives, has workt best — altogether 

 the best — in treating foul brood. It never re-appeared after 

 such treatment, though it did in nearly all the cases where 

 the hives were not boiled, thus confirming the theory or fact 

 of the spores. — Editor.] — Gleanings. 



^Uaion of Bee-Keepers— Honey Adulteratiou. 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



The members of the National Bee-Keepers' Union are 

 voting on the questions that were raised at the last 

 meeting of the North American Association. It is necessary 

 that we should all look at this matter from a more lofty stand- 

 point than the consideration of small differences of opinion 

 concerning a name, or a few changes in the Constitution of this 

 or that Association, or the question of selecting a Board or an 

 Executive Committee. 



What we need— every one of us — is UNION. Therefore, 

 whatever be the result of the present vote, let us all make up 

 our minds, beforehand, that we will abide by the decision of 

 the majority, whatever it be. One of the greatest traits of the 

 American nation is the willingness of its people to bow before 

 the verdict of the ballot. We saw it it again last November, 

 when the luost excitable of politicians accepted quietly a ver- 

 dict that upset their hopes. The bee-keepers of the United 

 States need to unite as much as any class of men, whether they 

 be laborers, or machinists, or capitalists. We have before us 

 a dragon to exterminate— "adulteration." It is worse than 

 a dragon, it is a true hydra, with thousands of heads, springing 

 up all over the United States, and when we think we havescared 

 it away, it raises another of its ugly heads at our very doors. 



The National Bee-Keepers' Union has done good work, but 

 what it has achieved is nothing by the side of what it should 

 achieve. The damage done to bee-keepers in a direct way, by 

 swindling commission-men, by cranky neighbors, or by mis- 

 taken fruit-growers who consider the bee-keepers as enemies, 

 is nothing compared to the damage done them all over the 

 country by the sale on all the markets, of the lowest grade of 

 glucose under the label of " honey." Is there a man among 

 us who doubts that the sale of this shameful mixture under 



