688 



October, 1907. 



American ^ee Journal 



glue-like substance produced by the foul 

 brood is of a similar origin. What is 

 left after something is rotten belongs 

 also to the same class of products. Some 

 of these products, in fact the majority, 

 are not unwholesome ; a few are quite 

 beneficial, but some are among the rank- 

 est poisons. The bacillus producing 

 cholera is one. It lives in the mat- 

 ters contained in the intestines as well 

 as in other parts of the body, and 

 also in decaying substances outside. 

 The bacillus itself is inoffensive, but 

 its dej actives are exceedingly poison- 

 ous, and that's what kills the patient. 

 Occasionally some of these poisonous 

 bacilli develop in ice-creams, oysters, 

 etc., and cause the accidents heard of 

 now and then. A peculiarity of these 

 cases is that the poisons thus produced 

 kill the bacilli themselves as well as the 

 the animal afifected. or even better._ The 

 most striking examples are furnished 

 by fevers and other diseases that run a 

 course of a certaion duration. After 

 the bacilli have multiplied sufficiently 

 and produced enough poisonous matter 

 to kill themselves, the disease has run 

 its course, and the recovery of the pa- 

 tient, if he is not dead already, depends 

 upon what strength may be left. 



Cultivation of Disease-Germs. 



To the one who may never have 

 heard of it before, the idea of "culti- 

 vating" the germs of a disease must 

 seem quite funny. But if we reflect a 

 little and consider that these germs, ba- 

 cilli, or bacteria, develop at the expense 

 of animal or vegetable matter, living or 

 dead, the possibility of raising a lot of 

 them in a small vial or tube of glass is 

 at once seen. And, furthermore, the 

 possibility of studying them thoroughly 

 is apparent at once. Some vials like 

 those used for holding homeopathic 

 remedies are usually used for the pur- 

 pose. 



As most of the disease-germs live at 

 the expense of the flesh or blood of the 

 sick animal, or in its intestines, the "me- 

 dium" in which they are "cultivated," 

 or, to use plain English, the food we 

 furnish them, and in which they can 

 live, is usually beef-broth or meat-juice, 

 sometimes milk, or blood deprived of its 

 corpuscles. Occasionally sugar syrup 

 or gums are used — whatever the case 

 may require. Some bacilli are not very 

 particular, and will develop in almost 

 anything. Others are very difficult to 

 cultivate and cannot live except in cer- 

 tain substan-ces. Quite a number have 

 not been fully identified until the right 

 kind of "medium" was finally discov- 

 ered. 



Suppose we have bees afflicted with 

 the European foul brood, and we want 

 to study it. A number of these small 

 vials are prepared and filled with bee- 

 broth, or whatever kind of medium is 

 thought best, and then sufficiently heat- 

 ed to destroy any kind of germ that 

 might have gotten in accidentally. We 

 also make sure that the "medium" is 

 not acid, as very few kinds of bacilli 

 will develop where the least acidity is 

 present. But there are exceptions. A 

 little bit of the blood of a diseased bee 

 is then introduced in the vial, and the 

 stopper replaced. Then the bacilli that 

 may be in the blood will develop in the 



vial and can be studied at leisure. The 

 peculiarities of the disease — for in- 

 stance, the glue-like ropiness of the foul 

 brood — will appear in the "culture." 



But that is not enough. We want to 

 be sure that the discovered and culti- 

 vated bacillus is the one that has pro- 

 duced the disease. So we reverse the 

 process. Instead of taking a little blood 

 of the diseased bee and putting it in the 

 glass vial, we take a little of the in- 

 fected culture and feed it to a colony of 

 healthy bees, but mixing it with sugar 

 syrup or honey. That colony will soon 

 show the disease with all its characteris- 

 tics. 



EouL Brood. 



As stated at the beginning of this ar- 

 ticle, the first thing done by Prof. White 

 and his associates was to find which 

 kind of germs and bacteria might be 

 found accidentally on the bees or on the 

 combs. Quite a number are mentioned, 

 and a few of those that might be easily 

 mistaken for the cause of the disease 

 are carefully described. 



There are two kinds of foul brood, 

 the European kind, which is produced 

 by the bacillus alvci, and the American 

 kind, which is produced by the bacillus 

 larvae. I will not describe the diseases, 

 as they have so often been described 

 lately that the readers of this paper un- 

 doubtedly know what they are. The 

 chief difference between the two is that 

 the dead brood from the American foul 

 brood shows considerably more ropi- 

 ness and glue-like consistency than the 

 other. The two kinds of bacilli are so 

 near alike that they cannot be distin- 

 guished with the microscope alone. A 

 "cultivation" is necessary to ascertain 

 "which is which" when found. There 

 is, however, a considerable difference in 

 the "cultivating" results. The bacillus 

 alvci will propagate easily in almost 

 any kind of "medium." Beef-broth is 

 the best. The bacillus larvae, on the 

 other hand, is extremely difficult, al- 

 most impossible, to cultivate. In fact, 

 Prof. White is the first bacteriologist 

 that has succeeded. 



The bacillus alvei was thoroughly 

 studied by Cheshire and Cheyne be- 

 tween 1880 and 1885. They had the 

 bees and all the necessary facilities, and 

 ability to do the work. All the investi- 

 gations made since have confirmed their 

 descriptions and assertions. Cheshire 

 was aware that there was another kind 

 of disease similar to that produced by 

 the bacillus alvei, but he did not publish 

 any description of it. 



From that time until recently it was 

 generally admitted that there was but 

 one kind of foul brood, and that it is 

 produced by the bacillus alvci. Never- 

 theless, now and then came some dis- 

 senting voices. The descriptions given 

 did not tally. In fact, they could not 

 since there were two diseases. The 

 "cultures" made sometimes yielded the 

 bacillus alvei, sometimes not. In that 

 last case, the operator usually succeed- 

 ed in cultivating some bacillus or other 

 that just happened to be there, but had 

 nothing to do with the disease. Those 

 who confined their observations to the 

 microscope mistook the bacillus larvae 

 for the bacillus ah'ei, as they are too 

 near alike to be distinguished by the 



microscope alone. As both diseases are 

 common, both here and in Europe, it is 

 very likely that in many of the cases 

 observed both diseases existed together. 



Finally, a few years ago. Dr. Burri, 

 of Switzerland, discovered beyond a 

 doubt that there were two diseases, pro- 

 duced by two different bacilli. He had 

 no difficulty in cultivating the bacillus 

 alvei, but completely failed to cultivate 

 the other. On this side of the Atlantic 

 the existence of two diseases became 

 evident a few years ago, and one of 

 them received at first the name "black 

 brood." 



To Prof. White belongs the honor of 

 having cultivated and studied the ba- 

 cillus larvae in a scientific way. After 

 trying the usual medium without suc- 

 cess, the idea occurred to him that since 

 the bacillus larvae was living in the 

 bodies of the bees, or rather their lar- 

 vae, it would probably live and develop 

 in a broth made of bee-larvae. Success 

 crowned his efforts, and he thus was 

 able to cultivate and investigate the 

 bacillus larvae. 



Bee-Dysentery. 



Incidentally, dysentery came also un- 

 der consideration, while Prof. White 

 and his associates were studying the 

 bacilli and other similar organisms that 

 are found in the intestines of healthy 

 bees. 



An immense number of different 

 kinds of such organisms are found in 

 the lower intestines of all the animals, 

 man included. As the matters con- 

 tained in the intestines are very near 

 the same in all. the same organisms are 

 found indistinctly in all, or nearly so. 



In studying those contained in the in- 

 testines of the healthy bees, many of 

 those that infest the higher animals 

 were recognized. This could be expect- 

 ed since the intestinal matters con- 

 tained in them are very similar. As 

 long as the movements of the intes- 

 tines are regular, these organisms are 

 carried out nearly as fast as th;y mul- 

 tiply, and do not cause any trouble. 

 But if through some cause or other the 

 movement ceases, then they may accum- 

 ulate to such an extent as to cause seri- 

 ous disease. Hence the dysentery of the 

 bees, when they are confined and do not 

 void the contents of their intestines 



Spores in Honey. 



Like Cheshire. Prof. White found 

 that the honey from the hives infected 

 very seldom contains any foul - brood 

 bacilli or their spores. However, con- 

 sidering how small they are, they may 

 often have escaped observation. Fur- 

 thermore, a single one might be enough 

 eventually to infest a whole apiary. 



There is quite a misunderstanding on 

 this matter among our bee-keepers. 

 Even our best writers are not exempt. 

 To understand the case fully, we must 

 consider how the bacilli propagate them- 

 seves. The bacilli of both foul-brood 

 diseases are very small, rod-like things. 

 They grow in length rapidly, and when 

 they have attained a certain size they 

 break in two pieces, and there are then 

 two different individuals where before 

 there was but one. These grow and di- 

 vide like their predecessors, and as the 

 process is very rapid, a division occur- 



