THE AMERICAN APIGULTURIST. 



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excited bees while previously it had 

 not been in contact with the cluster. 



The late Dr. Carpenter in his 

 Comparative Ph^'siology quoted 

 freely from Newport's paper on the 

 heat of insects. In order to avail 

 myself of all the " knowledge gath- 

 ered in" relating to the heat of 

 bees, I took the opportunity of 

 asking Dr. Carpenter, on the oc- 

 casion of his late visit to Montreal, 

 what had been done since New- 

 port's paper appeared in 1837. In 

 reply, he sent me the following 

 letter. 



Montreal, August 31, 1882. 



Dear Sir: 

 As I have not, for many yeai'S past, 

 attempted to keep up with the progress 

 of comparative pliysiology, I am unable 

 to saj' whether any oljservations on 

 the heat of insects have been made 

 subsequently to those of my friend, 

 George Newport. I can only tell you 

 where you are most likely to learn 

 anything that has been since done on 

 the suijject. 



Prof. Milne-Edwards of Paris com- 

 pleted, about two years ago, his great 

 work on " Comparative Physiology" in 

 ten or eleven volumes. This is sure 

 to contain references to anything that 

 has been published on the subject up to 

 that date. The work will doubtless be 

 found in the principal public libraries 

 of the U. S. 



The most likely man to have pub- 

 lished original observations on the 

 subject is Prof. Plateau of Liege, 

 (Belgium). References to his papers 

 in journals and transactions, will be 

 found in the society's catalogue of 

 scientific papers (with successive sup- 

 plements) which I know to be in sev- 

 eral of the public libraries of the U. S. 



I hope that through these channels 

 you may get the information you wish. 

 Yours truly, 

 William B. Carpenter. 



The works mentioned are not in 

 any public library within ray reach 

 and I now publish Dr. Carpenter's 

 letter hoping that it may fall un- 

 der the eye of some one who can 

 conveniently examine those woi'ks 

 and who will give the readers of 

 the "Api" the benefit of what 

 they may contain on the heat of 



bees. Possibly, Mr. Arljhur Todd, 

 who has given us so many good 

 things, may be able to f\nd those 

 works in some of the pubt^ ^ra-c 

 ries of Philadelphia. \ " '- 



It is sad to recollect thar'^r 

 Carpenter, as well as the ot 

 scientists whom he mentions have 

 died since the above letter was 

 written. 



Lindsay, Can. 



THE CAUSE OF BEE 

 DIARRHOEA. ' 



By C. W. Dayton. 



On Nov. 23, 1884, I placed in a 

 cellar (which was built for the pur- 

 pose of wintering bees) sixty col- 

 onies of bees, which were suspended 

 in mid-air, and forty colonies that 

 were in hives having tight covers 

 to the brood-chambers. 



Prepared in this way, the sixt}' 

 colonies had as much upward ven- 

 tilation as it was possible to give 

 them, and the forty colonies had 

 no upward hive ventilation at all. 



As the colonies were set in the 

 cellar they were alternated with 

 each other, facing an aisle three and 

 one-half feet wide. During all the 

 winter the temperature of the cel- 

 lar did not vary outside of 47° at 

 the top, and 44° at the bottom. 



For the first six weeks, the bees 

 seemed to be enjoying so called 

 " hibernation," at the end of which 

 time the colonies in tightly covered 

 hives showed uneasiness and signs 

 of diarrhffia, which increased so that 

 March 16, found seventeen of tiiem 

 dead. 



On May 1, only eleven weak and 

 diseased colonies remained of the 

 forty having tigiit covers to the^ 

 brood-chambers, while of the sixty, 

 suspended in mid-air all were 

 healthy and strong, save one, and 

 that died undiseased. 



On Nov. 13, 1885, 112 colonies 

 were placed in the same cellar, and 



