400 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



But there are times when the bee- 

 keeper realizes that there are no in- 

 fallible rules in bee-keeping. When the 

 bees seem cross, he uses too much 

 smoke, is slightly "rattled" himself, 

 and when he will fail to construe his 

 sentences by the rigid rules of grammar. 

 Even Mr. Doolittle once said that his 

 wrists were sometimes nearly paralyzed 

 with stings. Perhaps this has no rela- 

 tion to unsinged wrists ; however, most 

 hands have enough hair to make a great 

 difference, whether they are singed off 

 smooth or not. 



A little honey rubbed over the backs 

 of the hands is a great protection, but if 

 one or two bees persist in following you 

 and " looking you out of countenance" 

 for a long time, pick up a 3-inch shingle, 

 step back a ways and play ball with 

 that bee. If you knock it crazy, and it 

 " comes to " after lying in the grass ten 

 minutes it may think that it is its turn 

 to play ball, and send in a stinger with- 

 out notice. But all this happens in a 

 lifetime, and much more. This "ball 

 playing" is perhaps wrong, and ought 

 not to be advised. Perhaps it does not 

 mend matters, but there is a certain 

 satisfaction and sense of relief for the 

 time. 



The ease with which a cover is re- 

 moved makes all the difference in the 

 world with the quiet manners of a col- 

 ony, and for this purpose I know of 

 nothing as good as a cloth covering the 

 top of frames and hive. 



As to varieties of bees, the beautiful 

 temper of a throughbred Italian bee is 

 about as near right as we shall find in 

 this world. We want a bee to sting on 

 suitable accasions. The boys let them 

 alone, and do not need to be told what 

 the rights of honey-bees are. They may 

 stone the helpless toad, and pull the 

 cat's tail, but if they step on a honey- 

 bee it is an accident every time. The 

 tears are genuine. 



Kalamazoo, Mich. 



The Origin of Foul Brood, 



C. J. ROBINSON. 



In the issue of June 9, 1892, page 

 766, I essayed, in response to Dr. 

 Miller, to explain how it transpires that 

 foul brood originates seemingly sponta- 

 neous. The Doctor has not, like Mr. 

 Corneil and certain other correspondents, 

 joined issue with me over the mooted 

 question : " Does, or does not, foul 



brood, under any circumstances, origi- 

 nate within a colony of bees?" 



Up to 1880 there was no record of 

 any instance of so-called foul brood 

 originating, and it was supposed that 

 all cases of foul brood occurred by rea- 

 son of inoculation — a transfer of foul 

 brood virus from a diseased colony to 

 healthy brood. I was the first who pro- 

 mulgated that foul brood does, whenever 

 certain conditions are present, originate 

 through a peculiar fermentation of the 

 organic matter called "chrysalis," which 

 in a state of progressive development, is 

 also called " aurelia," a virus that at- 

 tacks live brood and spreads as does 

 dead tissue (mortification) in contact 

 with healthy tissue or chrysalis. 



Several years ago a correspondent 

 mentioned that he had cases of foul 

 brood in his apiary. He was situated 

 many miles from any colonies of bees, so 

 distant that his bees could not be visited 

 by anybody else's bees, and the query 

 with him was, Whence came foul brood 

 among his bees? He put the question, 

 and the reply he received was this : 

 " There must have been colonies of bees 

 in the woods that were diseased, and 

 they visited the hiyes, thus transmitting 

 the disease." Such an answer is more 

 visionary than sensible. 



How came foul broody colonies in the 

 woods, isolated from hives of bees ? The 

 hackneyed scepticism, which people so 

 willingly oppose to all progress of the 

 human mind, is a comfortable pillow for 

 lazy heads, but the period in which we 

 live allows no time to sleep, when every 

 hour must sweat her sixty minutes to 

 the death. Graves said : "The empire 

 of Reason, extending from the old to the 

 new world— from Europe to the Antip- 

 odes — has encircled the earth, and the 

 sun never sets on her (Reason's) domin- 

 ions ; individuals must rest, but the 

 collective intelligence of the species 

 (mankind) never sleeps." 



The most eminent teachers are oft- 

 times conceited. The greatest French 

 surgeon (Duputren) writing of the sim- 

 ple Kentuckian's operation — ovariotomy 

 — denounced the operation as the act of 

 a man who should be indicted for man- 

 slaughter, although it must long since 

 have added to the community hundreds 

 of thousands of useful lives of women 

 and mothers of families. 



The so-called foul brood ought not to 

 be said that it was a creation of species, 

 unless it be conceded that ferment in 

 all its phases was created as such in the 

 beginning. As well might so-called 

 blood-poison be said to be a creature, as 



