142 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15. 



out special scientific training. I have secured 

 from Prof. Headden a brief digest of this talk, 

 and take pleasure in presenting it here : 



Whatever sugars may be present in the nectar of 

 flowers matters not in answering the question as to 

 what sugars may be present in. honey ; for it has been 

 proven by direct experiment that the bee, in imbibing 

 and disgorging the sugar, will invert as good as all of 

 it, even though it be a pure cane-sugar syrup which 

 is fed. Honey is essentially the solution of invert su- 

 gar composted of approximately equal parts of dex- 

 trose, levulose, and water. The name applied to such 

 a mixture of sugar when it has been derived by action 

 of a hydrolitic agent upon cane sugar is " invert " su- 

 gar, and when occurring as a natural sugar it is called 

 fruit sugar. U.'-ually there is but littie cane sugar 

 present in honey, especially in that deposited by the 

 ordinary honey-bee. 



Honey candies upon .standing, because of the ability 

 of the dextrose to assume a cry.'-talline form much 

 more readily than the levulose ; therefore, if the can- 

 died honey be subjected to sufficient pressure the 



DR. W. P. HEADDEN. 



greater portion of the levulose can be obtained, con- 

 taining onlv a comparatively small portion of dex- 

 trose ; or a more convenient method is to place a por- 

 tion of the candied honey on a sieve floated on a weak 

 alcohol containitig about twenty per cent of water, 

 whereupon the levulose will readily pass into solution 

 in the alcohol, leaving a mass of crystals upon the 

 sieve, which are crystals of dextrose. 



If we take some of these crystals, dissolve them in 

 water, and examine the solution by the aid of an iti- 

 strument called a polariscope, we shall find that it 

 turns the plane of polarization to the right. If we 

 take the alcoholic solution and examine it by the aid 

 of the same instrument, observing proper precautions, 

 we shall find that this solution turns the plane strong- 

 ly to the left. This is the reason that we have desig- 

 nated the sugars as right-handed sugar and left-hand- 

 ed sugar. . . 



While the left-handed sugar, or levulose, can be ob- 

 tained crystallized, it is with much more dilficulty than 

 in the case of the dextro.se. If into a solution of dex- 

 trose there be introduced some crystals of this sugar 

 the crystallization can be facilitated very materially ; 

 and in our climate, where evaporation takes place rap- 

 idly, it is possible that we can bring about the candy- 

 ing of extracted honey by adding toil a small portion 

 of already candied honey or crystalline dextrose. 



Prof. Headden performed a series of exper- 

 iments just as he would before a class of stu- 

 dents. He had his polariscope, the use of 

 which he explained and illustrated. He also 

 exhibited some specimens of dextrose that 

 had been secured by chemical means from 

 honey. He next showed a vial of the levulose. 

 The former looked like a very nice grade of 

 light-colored brown sugar. The latter appear- 

 ed like a very cheap grade of dark-colored 

 molasses. 



We next listened to an address by Prof. 

 Gillette. Instead of going into details, ex- 

 plaining foul brood and how to cure it, he ex- 

 plained the nature of all contagious diseases. 

 Any one who has any thing to do with foul 

 brood, diseased brood, or any form of conta- 

 gious disease, will do well to read this cai efully. 

 It will prove interesting as well as instrtictive; 

 for it is made so plain that any bee-keeper 

 will be able to understand it fully. This pa- 

 per, taken in connection with what appears 

 tlsewhere on the .subject of black brood, will 

 help to make the latter very much more easily 

 understood. 



Foul brood has long been known as a true conta- 

 gious disease. Such diseases do J;heir most destruc- 

 tive work when they attack individuals that are crowd- 

 ed together in den.sely populated communities. The 

 fact that the honey-bee lives in such communities, 

 and the further fact that both the bees and their prod- 

 ucts are shipped freely from place to place, have made 

 this a very serious and widespread malady. If it once 

 enters an apiary, and nothing is done to eradicate it, 

 it is almost certain that it will, in time, destroy every 

 colony in its immediate neighborhood. Colorado's 

 pure air and abundant sunshine seems to offer no im- 

 pediment to the rapid development and spread of this 

 disease, which is widely disseminated in the State. 

 It is important, therefore, that all who keep bees 

 should know the cause of this disease, its symptoms, 

 its methods of dissemination, and also the preventives 

 and remedies that may be used to lessen its destruc- 

 tive work. I presume most of you are better acquaint- 

 ed with the symptoms and remedies of foul brood 

 than with its real cause and methods of dissemina- 

 tion, so I have chosen to dwell principally upon these 

 latter topics. 



The researches of the past thirty-five years, and 

 chiefly of the past fifteen years, have shown that 

 most, if not all, contagious diseases are the result of 

 the attack of microscopic parasites upon some part of 

 the diseased plant or animal. 



Every one understands how it is that parasites such 

 as ticks, lice, and mites that produce itch, scab, and 

 mange, are conveyed from one host to another, and 

 also how it is that the particular complaint accom- 

 panying each of these parasites could not occur in the 

 absence of the particular parasite. Cholera, small- 

 pox, diphtheria, and typhoid fever are also parasitic 

 infections, but the organisms producing these diseases 

 are so small that they can not be seen by the unaided 

 eye. 



On account of the minuteness of these organisms, 

 requiring the aid of a compound microscope to enable 

 man to see them, there are many people who think 

 that the "bacilli" and "microbes" of which the 

 scientist speaks exist only in his own fertile imagina- 

 tion. 



What are these minute organisms? How do they 

 increa.se in numbers? What do they look like under 

 the microscope? and how do we know that they are 

 the cause of contagious diseases? These are questions 

 that I shall attempt in some degree to answer. 



In the fir.st place, it is conceded that these organisms 

 belong to the vegetable kingdom in spite of the fact 

 that they are able to move freely about in the moist 

 media that they inhabit. They are closely related to 

 such vegetable growths as rusts, smuts, mildews, and 

 molds, with which all are more or less familiar. 



Although micro-organisms are the cause of nearly 

 all contagious diseases of plants and animals, these 

 organisms are not all detrimental to man's welfare. 

 Some are of the utmost importance. Without them 

 there would be no decomposition of dead animal or 

 vegetable matter, and the soil would lose its fertility. 



