APRIL 15, 1916 



315 



losses in Ontario. An interesting statement 

 was also made by James Heddon when 

 discussing the question of wintering at a 

 meeting of Michigan beekeepers on Decem- 

 ber 1, 1875. He attributed the heavy losses 

 in Michigan to an intestinal disease, and 

 said, " In the winter of 1871 two of my 

 neighbors had 65 and 85 stocks respectively. 

 Tn the following spring they had but one 

 apiece left. All the other bees kept in the 

 vicinity died." We are but too well ac- 

 quainted with this form of loss in districts 

 where Isle of Wight disease gets a footing. 



It should be borne in mind, when compar- 

 ing the English with the American disease, 

 that our observations in England are made 

 chiefly upon bees in which the native black 

 predominates. On the other hand, many of 

 the American descriptions refer to losses 

 which have taken place in apiaries where 

 the bees are pure Italian, or nearly so. We 

 know, too, that the Isle of Wight disease 

 varies considerably in accordance with 

 weather conditions, so that the double fac- 

 tors of race and climate are bound to affect 

 the American manifestations of nosema 

 disease. In regard to weather, so far as can 

 be traced, epidemics of bee-disease in this 

 country have always been correlated to wet 

 seasons. The epidemics of 1782-'3, and 

 1860-'3, were associated with wet summers, 

 and an outbreak of paralysis occuiTcd dur- 

 ing a long run of wet yeare which termi- 

 nated in 1883. Bees do well here at times, 

 owing to the fact that our climate consists 

 of long irregular spells in which dry years 

 predominate, alternating with spells in 

 which wet years predominate. We are now 

 in one oi the wet cycles. Rainy spring's anu 

 autumns aid in the spread of parasites, 

 probably because for breeding purposes the 

 bees carry in so much water from the paths 

 and foliage in the vicinity of the hives. 

 When intestinal disease is present this may 

 be grossly contaminated with infected ex- 

 crement. Indirectly, too, wet and cold 

 weather may act by influencing the quality 

 and quantity of the food, and by lowering 

 the resistance of the bee to disease. 



The American reports often suggest ad- 

 verse weather conditions as being a factor 

 in outbreaks. The probability is that most 

 bee diseases, and particularly those in which 

 the causal organism is to be found in the 

 intestine of the adult bee, are rendered 

 worse by the occurrence of wet and cold 

 weather. 



The nosema organism i?, reported to be 

 present in the bees of the United States; 

 and as this organism is associated with Isle 

 of Wight disease in this counti'y I have very 

 little doubt that it is at the root of some of 



the trouble in America. The newspaper 

 cutting from the Seattle Times reads like 

 Isle of Wight disease ; but when we read 

 the description of the same trouble as given 

 by M. Y. Calcutt (1915, page 714) we find 

 tliat rotting brood is a prominent feature 

 of the outbreak. Confirmation of the brood 

 trouble as a symptom is given by P. C. 

 Chadwick in his description of the Califor- 

 nia outbreak. A. L. Hartl, Texas, page 21, 

 adds the interesting detail that in his case 

 the dead brood was diagnosed as sac brood 

 at Washington. Rotting brood was certain- 

 ly not a feature of the disease on the Isle 

 of Wight and in other districts that came to 

 my notice. I have handled hundreds of 

 combs of diseased stocks, but have never 

 found any great proportion of them to 

 contain rotting brood, certainly not more 

 than Avould be affected with foul brood when 

 Isle of Wight disease was not present. In 

 the majority the brood presents a perfect- 

 ly healthy appearance, and, if transferred 

 in time, will hatch in other hives. In warm 

 weather I have seen brood hatching in a 

 hive from which all the adult bees had dis- 

 appeared, and on one occasion I took some 

 sealed brood from a, moribund hive and 

 hatched it in an incubator for purposes of 

 study. This is the appearance of Isle of 

 Wight brood as I know it, and it is, there- 

 fore, difficult for me to reconcile it with the 

 accounts of the western disease. 



I am reminded, however, that about 1890 

 an epidemic which attacked both brood and 

 bees was raging in Italy. Investigations 

 were commenced, and Professor Canestrini 

 isolated a bacillus of the megatherium type. 

 I believe that he failed to establish its path- 

 ogenicitj^, and nothing more seems to have 

 been heard of the disease. Have the West 

 rediscovered it? 



If it is correct that Professor Kincaid 

 has discovered spores in the heads of the 

 bees we should expect to find that the glands 

 were diseased. The poisonous products of 

 microbie activity (toxins) might be fed with 

 the gland secretions to the lanae, and the 

 result would be that the larvae would die. 

 Under the microscope the dead larvae would 

 resemble those killed by the filterable virus 

 (if sac brood. Personally I have never met 

 witli such a condition in any examinations 

 I have made, but have always borne in 

 mind the possibility of its occurrence. 



In the present state of our knowledge, or 

 at any rate until it is certain that all the 

 losses in America are accompanied by rot- 

 ting brood, it is advisable to retain an open 

 mind as to the relationship of the western 

 disease to the English malady, which ap- 

 pear to be directly fatal to tlie adult bees 



