53 



FOUL BROOD 



Like all other forms of life bees are liable to attacks by diseases, some 

 of which affect the adults, others the young. It is with those forms that 

 destroy the latter during the larval, that is the magot, stage the bee- 

 keepers of British Columbia are most concerned, because in recent years 

 they are spreading over this continent at a rate that has so far been un- 

 controllable. There aie two varieties, well recognised today, that attack 

 the larvae, both generally known as Foul Brood, probably because of the 

 disgusting odour that prevails when the virulent stage is reached. 



Only by long and patient research on the part of highly skilled investi- 

 gators have the causes of these deadly maladies been found. In 1885 an 

 Englishman named Cheyne ascribed the cause of the disease to a micro- 

 scopic form of plant life that he found present in the dead larvae, and he 

 named it Bacillus alvei, that is the hive bacillus. Recent investigations 

 confirm his discovery, differing in this, that he had found the cause of only 



FIG. 16. American Foul-Brood comb, showing irregular patches of sunken 

 cappings and scales. The position of the comb indicates the best way to 

 view the scales. (U. S. Dept. of Ag. Far. Bui. 442.) 



one form of Foul Brood. Dr. White of the U. S. Department of Agriculture 

 at Washington, D. C., after several years of careful work succeeded in iso- 

 lating another bacillus which is always present in the larvae that have died 

 from the other form of the malady, and all indications suggest that it is 

 probably the cause of the disease. Dr. White' gi^es the name of Bacillus 

 larvae to this humble but deadly form of plant life. 



Since the cause of one form of larval disease was first discovered in 

 Europe, the beekeepers of this continent have agreed that this form of the 

 malady shall be known as European Foul Brood, while the other variety is 

 to be called American Foul Brood. But it should be clearly understood 

 that both the diseases are prevalent on this continent and in Europe. 



