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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAJU 



that's impertinent, is he a very rich 

 man ? 



There are some other questions I 

 would like to ask, but perhaps you don't 

 like too many that don't come under the 

 head of " general questions." 



Marengo, 111. 



[Oh, Doctor, you are so inquisitive ! 

 We think we'll not try to answer any 

 questions, but invite Mr. Melbee himself 

 to reply to them. He will be able to do 

 so much more satisfactorily than we 

 coald, and we are sure that an article 

 from him on this subject would be much 

 more interesting and helpful than any- 

 thing we might write about it. We may 

 say, however, that Mr. Melbee does sell 

 honey at the price given on page 617, 

 whether or not you could do it, Doctor. 



Another thing: Mr. "Melbee is not the 

 only one we know, that is getting a good 

 price for his honey. It pays to know 

 how to market honey, and we hope that 

 ere another crop is produced, hard-work- 

 ing bee-keepers may have learned just 

 how to dispose of their honey at a good 

 price. 



Now we are ready to hear from Mr. 

 Melbee. — Ed.] 



Theories Regarding the Origin 

 of Foul Brood Examined. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY S. CORNEIL. 



(Continued from page 787.) 

 The reader will by this time have 

 come to the conclusion that, of Mr. Mc- 

 Evoy's " strong chain," there is not a 

 single link remaining, and that instead 

 of charging the jurors to believe the 

 "evidence," '.'a judge on the bench" 

 would instruct them that the prosecu- 

 tion had failed to make out a case, and 

 to find a verdict for the defendant, with- 

 out leaving the box. 



It has been stated by correspondents 

 of the bee-periodicals that, if the method 

 of curing foul brood practiced by Mr. 

 McEvoy, and by others for a century 

 before his time, is sound and successful, 

 the treatment by using disinfectants 

 cannot be well founded. Before I had 

 given much study to the subject, I held 

 a similar opinion myself, but on looking 

 into the question more closely, I saw 



that both methods are scientific, the 

 rationale of the cure in both cases being 

 based on the theory that the disease is 

 caused by germs. 



It is not denied by any one that foul 

 brood germs get into the honey and pol- 

 len in a foul-broody hive. True, those 

 who have examined such honey under 

 the microscope have not found the 

 germs, but the search was so much like 

 the proverbial " hunt for a needle in a 

 haystack" that no weight should be at- 

 tached to the failure. These germs may 

 be found in the chyle stomachs of some 

 of the bees of a diseased colony, and the 

 most reasonable way of accounting for 

 their presence is that they are carried 

 there in the food ; are plentiful in the 

 intestines, and they are voided with the 

 excrement. That they still retain their 

 vitality, and that they are capable of 

 starting the disease, is proven by the 

 experiment made by Mr. Cummings, 

 described in Gleanings. Mr. Cummings 

 scraped two grains of excreta from a 

 hive which contained foul-broody bees, 

 and mixed it with half a pint of syrup. 

 He fed this syrup to a healthy colony, 

 ten miles distant, the hive being in a 

 wire-cloth tent, to protect it from other 

 bees. In 13 days the disease was dis- 

 cernible, and in four weeks the combs 

 were reeking with foul-broody larvae. 

 Since the excrement is voided on the 

 wing, diseased bees may distribute the 

 germs over a large section of country, 

 and when the feces become pulverized, 

 the germs are ready to be carried by the 

 winds in all directions ; but this is a 

 digression. 



I have said that foul brood germs are 

 plentiful in the chyle stomachs of some 

 of the bees of a diseased colony. The 

 brood food is elaborated in this stomach, 

 regurgitated, aiid fed to the larva?. 

 Some of the germs are carried with it, 

 and of course attack the larvic. This 

 fact was ascertained by Schonfeld. So 

 long, therefore, as diseased bees continue 

 to act as nurses, so long will they com- 

 municate the disease to the larvaj, even 

 though fed on the purest honey in the 

 world. 



Now suppose a drug strong enough to 

 paralyze the germs, or as the scientists 

 say, to inhibit their growth, is fed to the 

 nurses, so that it forms a part of the 

 " bee-pap " which they feed to the larva3, 

 the germs are thereby rendered as harm- 

 less as any other foreign matters, and in 

 this inactive condition they are elimina- 

 ted from the system. 



I wish it to be noted that I have not 

 said that the disinfectants must kill or 

 destroy the germs. No one has ever 



