246 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



Decembei 



FOUL BROOD. 



By John Hewitt. 



1 NOTICE AN ARTICLE on this 

 subject by Mr. C. H. W. Weber 

 on page 24. Some day I hope to 

 make public the result of all my work, 

 but in the meantime allow me to cor- 

 rect Mr. Weber in several particulars 

 and put him on the right track for re- 

 search. 



In the first place he says the bacil- 

 lus of foul brood was discovered b}'' 

 Cheshire and Cheyne and named by 

 them "Bacillus Alvei." This is not 

 correct and is the fruit of an error 

 started in the British Bee Journal 

 Cheshire discovered it himself and 

 -named it B. Alvei eighteen months be 

 fore Cneyne took up the work of ver- 

 ifying Cheshire's discoveries. Cheyne 

 discovered nothing. Cheshire thought 

 Tie had discovered a cure for it in 

 phenol. I soon found he was mistak- 

 en in supposing so. I then made sev- 

 eral experiments based on observa- 

 tions and sent several subjects to 

 Cheshire to examine. Cheshire 

 thought I had a new bacillus disease, 

 and he made drawings of it, show- 

 ing the difference between it and the 

 true Alvei. As a matter of fact, it 

 was the real thing and he failed to 

 recognize it. From my experiments, 

 I arrived at the conclusion that the 

 disease did not reproduce itself until 

 it had passed through the nurse bees, 

 and from this I was able to devise a 

 cure, which I published in the Bee- 

 Keepers' Record for July, 1887, pp. 

 130 and 131. This cure has since been 

 put out in America as the discovery 

 of McEvoy, the Canadian foul brood 

 expert, though he never mentioned 

 it before I gave him a "slating" in the 

 "Bee Master" ten years after. This 

 cure is the only one that will ever 

 cure foul brood, except heat, and I 

 don't care what anyone may say to 

 the contrary. 



The latest is a statement that Dr. 

 Lambotte, of Leige, has discovered 

 the bacillus of foul brood to be the 

 same as the bacillus of the potato 

 disease. I read a translation of his 

 article and came to the conclusion he 

 had not been experimenting with true 

 foul brood, but with a phase of bee 

 life many people think is foul brood. 

 Even Cheshire did. Lambotte got his 



samples from bee-keepers (he was no 

 a bee-keeper himselt) and he de 

 scribes the diseased larvae as beinj 

 "yellow." Now the true foul brooi 

 is brown — not yellow in color. Bu 

 this yellow foul brood is fearfully lik 

 the true thing. Some years, with 

 aamp cold spell, almost every hiv 

 will be afifected; then no trace will b 

 found ior years, until another dam: 

 cold spell. I get lots of samples sen' 

 me from people who are sure the 

 have got foul brood, and experts ar 

 sure it is the real thing; but I am a! 

 ways able to tell them it will pas 

 away. 



"This "yellow" form seems to ac 

 very much like the potato diseas' 

 which I am satisfied is not "infet 

 tious," as we understand the wore 

 for some years it is not seen, whi!, 

 in cold, damp seasons it is very con 

 mon. I have planted diseased sc 

 time after time and lifted crops witl 

 out a trace of disease. 



The whole subject of infection 

 badly misunderstood. It is only r 

 cently that instruments were mat 

 powerful enough to see the bacilli) 

 Just fancy someone had made a ir 

 croscope which, by magnifying 6,0' 

 times, he was able to see strawbe 

 ries grow, each sending out shoots, a: 

 these in turn sending out fresh shoo 

 Now, just imagine the possibility 

 such a man being able to see the bf 

 ries with the fine seeds dotted on th< 

 face, each one capable of growing 

 a new plant. Just fancy he was at 

 to kill the plant with some kind 

 gas or other nostrum, how would 

 kill the seeds? My contention is, ■i 

 do not know the life history of the 

 bacillus germs, and he is a fool vf 

 thinks he does. 



Let us take ferns as an example 

 what I mean. On the under side ol 

 leaf very fine particles of dust will 

 found, called "spores;" so fine are th« 

 they are blowing about in the air ■! 

 breathe, thousands of them. Set 

 damp tree pot out of doors, and the 

 sands will stick to it. You cann 

 scrape a handful of earth up withe 

 getting thousands, every one 

 which will grow if you give them t 

 right conditions, viz.: moistu 

 warmth and little light. Ferns C3 

 not grow in simlight. My idea 

 that all disease germs are like fe 

 spores — they will not germinate t 



c 



