June 13, 1907 



American Hae Journal 



American foul brood that was occupied 

 by Bacillus alvei? 



Mr. 7 ra.ncer— Bacillus larvae. 



Dr. Miller— I am not sure whether 

 I understand this thing or not. It looks 

 to me a little as if you were mixmg 

 two different questions. The first is 

 in regard to European and American 

 foul brood, and then there is another 

 different question in regard to Bacillus 



alvei. ... 



Pres. York— Bacdlus alvct is the same 

 as the New York black brood or Euro- 

 pean foul brood— all the same thing. 



Dr. Miller — It seems to me I under- 

 stand that it was decided that Bacillus 

 alvei was an entirely innocent party, 

 and had nothing to do with either of 

 them. , , 



Pres. York— I think that is wrong. 



Dr. Miller— 5oci'Hi(.f alvei is the Euro- 

 pean foul brood? 



Mr. France— Yes. 



Pres. York— And Bacillus larvae is 

 the American foul brood. 



Mr Moore— I want to press this 

 right home. If in the past all of these 

 scientists have been mistaken, who have 

 held up Bacillus alvei as being the germ 

 of foul brood, and we believed theni, 

 and then somebody comes along and 

 says we are mistaken, is our authority 

 .rood enough to make us throw away 

 all we had in the past and say Bacillus 

 alvei is not in it at all? 



Mr. Taylor— I think there is no doubt 

 that they are right as far as they have 

 gone The trouble with Howard and 

 those other fellows is that they relied 

 on a single test— I suppose on a micro- 

 scopic test— and I judge that the two 

 Bacilli are alike in appearance; but now 

 these men at the head of our mterests 

 in the Government have applied a new 

 test They have appUed the test of dif- 

 ferent kinds of culture to these microbes, 

 and they find that the beef culture will 

 enable the Bacillus alvei to propagate 

 and to increase, while if used with the 

 other Bacilli they perish, showing con- 

 clusively by this new test that they are 

 two different Bacilli. 



Mr. Kimmey— If I understood what 

 Dr. White and Dr. Phillips were try- 

 ing to explain to us at the Bee-Inspec- 

 tors' convention at San Antonio, it was 

 something like this; The European foul 

 brood was examined and they believed 

 that the cause of the disease was the 

 Bacillus alvei, and traced it to that. 

 When we got a disease, without making 

 any examination we called that "foul 

 brood." Then another disease sprang 

 up which wt called "black brood." Up- 

 on making the scientific investigations 

 which these men directed, they failed to 

 find Bacillus alvei in our foul brood, 

 but they did find it in black brood, so 

 they came to the conclusion that what 

 we 'had always called black brood was 

 really the European foul brood. In 

 order not to confuse the names, they 

 then decided to call our foul brood 

 "American foul brood," and the black 

 brood "European foul brood"— the one 

 having the germ Bacillus alvei, the 

 European foul brood ; and the American 

 foul brood having the Bacillus larvae. 

 In order not to rob the European people 

 of their honor of discovering that, they 

 called that the European foul brood 



which was formerly our black brood, 

 making two distinct diseases. 



Pres. York — Our foul brood they call 

 "American foul brood," but the Euro- 

 pean foul brood happens to be the same 

 as the black brood they have in New 

 York and a number of other States. 



Mt. Kimmey — So we will drop the 

 name "black brood" entirely. 



Mr. France — I got quite interested in 

 this subject the past summer, and 1 

 asked Dr. Phillips upon his return from 

 California to come to my place. 1 

 wanted to investigate this subject of 

 black brood or European foul brood, 

 as I understood it was approaching. I 

 was attending a meeting of some of 

 the inspectors at Milwaukee, and de- 

 cided to take a train and go to Michigan, 

 where we could find the European foul 

 brood. We had no microscope, but 

 from the appearance of the brood itself 

 — the dead larvae — it looked decidedly 

 different, so that the naked eye could 

 tell, after once seen, the difference. With 

 the black brood, if there are larvre at 

 an earlier stage they turn dark, almost 

 black, and flatten right down on the 

 bottom of the cells, whereas the Ameri- 

 can foul brood becomes a brown, ropy, 

 putrid matter, and lies upon the side of 

 the cell, and becomes stringy in its na- 

 ture. The European never does that. 

 As for the odor, there was a marked 

 difference again. Our common foul 

 brood has what we call a glue-pot smell, 

 the other had not; not much of any 

 odor, but what there was, as near as 

 I can remember, was more like sour 

 pomace from a cider-mill. 



Mr. Kimmey — Allow me to ask Mr. 

 France these questions : Is the Ameri- 

 can foul brood prevalent in Europe? Do 

 they have the two diseases there? 



Mr. France — They have them bof.*? 



Mr. Kimmey — What do they call them 

 there, do you know? 



Mt. France — As far as I know they 

 call them foul brood. That is why there 

 has been this trouble. We found, by 

 referring to scientific researches in 

 Europe, that they had made scientific 

 cultures of them, and examined them, 

 and got conflicting results, examining 

 one and then another, and were misled 

 by the name. 



Dr. Miller — If you will allow me to 

 answer Mr. Kimmey's question, I think 

 they distinguish them as the mild an^ 

 severe. 



Mr. Thompson — I would like to ask 

 if the treatment of both is the same. 



Mr. France — Not exactly, although 

 the thorough treatment as has been de- 

 scribed, taking away the infected combs, 

 will cure either one. 



Dr. Bohrer — Speaking about the odor 

 of the foul brood as we find it in this 

 country, it has been compared to the 

 smell of dissolved glue. I want to say, 

 from my experience, it is that way, only 

 more so. 



Inspecting Apiaries in Cook County. 



"Was there a foul brood inspector 

 around this summer to inspect the apiar- 

 ies of Cook County?" 



Mr. Moore — I believe there was not. 

 I acted as foul brood inspector for 

 only one season, and I think Pres. 

 Smith, of the Illinois State Association, 

 is the only one who has acted as in- 



spector of apiaries since then; and Mr. 

 Smith has had the work of eight men 

 on his hands to cover this State, so 

 naturally, he could not cover it all. As 

 far as I know, he has not been in Cook 

 County at all. 



Mr. Thompson — He was in Kane 

 County. 



Pres. York — He generally goes when 

 he is sent for. 



Mr. France — There have been sent 

 to me samples of diseased brood and 

 dead brood from almost every State, and 

 there have been some samples from 

 Cook County sent me and some sharp 

 criticisms because I did not say it was 

 foul brood ; but it was not. 



Pres. York — -What was it — pickled 

 brood? 



Mr. France — Some of it was. Some 

 was starved brood, and some had in- 

 dications foreign to all of us as yet. 



Mr. Moore — Was there any black 

 brood, Mr. France? 



Mr. France — No, sir ; but I was sur- 

 prised to learn from Dr. Phillips that 

 he had found cases of black brood in 

 Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and California. 

 European black brood is spreading. 



Pres. York — And of course in the 

 East, besides? 



Mr. France — Yes. 



Dr. Bohrer — Has Illinois no foul 

 brood law at all? 



Pres York — It has a foul brood law, 

 but not a compulsory law. It is at the 

 option of the bee-keepers whether they 

 will let the inspectors in their apiaries 

 or not. 



Distance of Apiary from Highway. 



"How far should an apiary be from 

 the highway?" 



Mr. Meredith — Just far enough not 

 to interfere with the public. 



Mr. Taylor — That reminds me of a 

 story. There was a gentleman in Eng- 

 land who desired to hire a coachman, 

 and so he advertised for one. He 

 wished any candidates there might be to 

 appear at a certain time. Several ap- 

 peared and he began to question them, 

 and wanted to know how near they 

 could drive to the edge of a cliff there 

 was upon his estate. The first one said 

 he could drive within a yard of it; an- 

 other one said he thought he could 

 drive within a foot of it safely; and 

 the next one thought he could drive 

 within an inch of the edge. The last 

 man, an Irishman, said, "Faith and be 

 jabers, I would keep as far away from 

 it as I could." 



Dr. Bohrer — There should be a high 

 fence, 6 or 7 feet. I remember having 

 an apiary of about loo colonies in In- 

 diana, and I had them just over a fence 

 from a public highway and the bees 

 never annoyed people passing on the 

 road, with a fence some 6% feet high. 

 They would go over that fence and go 

 over the heads of persons in buggies 

 and on horseback ; I never knew any 

 one molested. 



Mr. Arnd— Mr. Duff, who is here, 

 has ISO colonies right in the city of 

 Chicago. He can probably tell you. 



Mr. Duff — I can keep bees within about 

 10 feet of the street ; but I have a 6- 

 foot fence so the bees rise up and go 

 right over. 



