740 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



British Bee Journal. 



Phenol and Foul Brood. 



QTJEEN AND EGGS CONTAINING BACILLUS ALVBI— FOUL 

 BROOD (¥) 



FRANK CHESHIRE. 



In my former article theoretic grounds were given 

 seeming to show that probably the queen, and even the 

 eggs, might be infected, and that foul brood (?) might be 

 communicated by heredity, as in the case of the disease 

 called pebrine. 



Statements have. been made to me of the singular 

 behavior of some infected colonies, which, although weak 

 and decreasing, seemed ever bent on the building of 

 queen-cells, and that they sometimes also were earnest in 

 rearing drones. Two or three similar instances had come 

 directly under my own observation, and as soon as I made 

 the important discovery that adult bees were sufferers as 

 well as the larvie, it struck me that in all probability the 

 explanation of the singular behavior referred to was that 

 the bees knowing that the queen was defective were 

 endeavoring to replace her, but that her defects constantly 

 prevented their efforts from being successful. 



It was to me remarkable that only two or three days 

 before the Congress, Mr. H. F. Hart, of Stockbridge, 

 wrote to me stating that he had observed a hive in which 

 the disease appeared to strike some of the larvee imme- 

 diately after hatching, and that the bees built queen-cells. 

 He then sliowed verj; keen insight by suggesting that it 

 seemed to him to point to disease in the queen. At the 

 Congress I heard more of the case, and felt convinced 

 that" the queen was actually infected. 



Mr. Hart, with much kindness, agreed to secure her, if 

 possible, and forward her to me. Finding this queen as 

 nearly as possible dead at her arrival, I forthwith com- 

 menced a careful dissection under my Stephenson's 

 binocular dissecting microscope ; the only form of instru- 

 ment really equal to very minute examinations. Having 

 opened the abdomen and removed the left air-sac, which 

 was very much above the average size — this I have found 

 a constant indication of the presence of bacillus— I came 

 upon the ovary and felt certain at once, from its appear- 

 ance, that I should find the " missing-link," as Mr. Hart 

 had called it. The ovary, of which I have on previous 

 occasions removed many dozens, was in this instance 

 abnormally yellow and extremely soft, so that it was very 

 difficult to detach it from the trachese without tearing. I 

 separated an ovigian tube and placed it under a second 

 microscope (using 600 diameters), and at once, to my ex- 

 treme gratification, four or five bacilli were seen swim- 

 ming along with a lazy sort of progression. Detaching 

 now a half-developed egg, and exercising great care to 

 eliminate every possible source of accidental contamina- 

 tion, I placed the egg, with a trace of water, upon a glass 

 slip and crushed it out flat with a thin cover, and in a few 

 minutes I had counted no less than nine bacilli. 



The right ovary was very nearly free from disease. 

 During a prolonged search I found two or three bacilli 

 only. All this is extremely interesting, as showing that 

 this bacillus disease, like some attacking the human sub- 

 ject, may take both an acute and a chronic form, and may 

 also settle in some special organ or part of an organ, as 

 bacillus tuberculosis may attack one lung and destroy it 

 and leave the otlier many years intact. 



All will, I hope, forgive my esteeming myself fortunate 

 in having thus been able to make out the only points I 

 had to leave undetermined on the2-5th of July last. Then 

 I had found the disease in young larvse and those fully 

 fed, in chrysalids in all stages, in drones, in workers just 

 gnawing out of the cell (a depression in one compound 

 eye, or in the thorax, or in the fifth abdominal segment, 

 is an indication of bacilli being present), in young nurses 

 and in old worn-out bees, and now in a queen and eggs 

 unlaid. Bacihus alvei is then a disease affecting all and 

 every condition of bee-hood. 



Can it continue to be called foul brood V To say the 

 queen is suffering from foul brood would be as illogical 

 and ridiculous as talking of toothache in the liver, or 

 rheumatism in awooden leg. Surely, our better educated 

 bee-keepers will usually name it " bacillus," and when 

 speaking carefully " bacillus alvei," while those less 



instructed will by degrees learn the desirability of drop- 

 ping the old and utterly unsuitable term in favor of tlie 

 one I give, which will, with a little practice, be no more 

 difficult of pronunciation than its predecessor. 



BEE DISEASES IN RELATION TO APICULTURE AND 

 GENERAL SCIENCE. 



All diseases may be classed as either functional, 

 organic, or contagious. The latter are now very widely 

 admitted to consist of ailments which are brought about 

 by the growth and rapid multiplication within the living 

 frame of \egetable organisms, commonly spoken of as 

 germs. These organisms (micro-organisms) may be 

 passed from individual to individual, and hence the pos- 

 sibility of infection. 



Let us suppose we had never seen bees, but that we are 

 told respecting them, that they live in very numerous 

 colonies, of which the members are always in the closest 

 contact ; that their usual system of communication is by 

 actual touch ; that they habitually pass the food from one 

 stomach to another ; that all the food they have has been 

 carried either within or upon the bodies of their fellows ; 

 that their very home is formed of one of their secretions, 

 and that their beds, cradles, and larders, are all inter- 

 changeable. And then our informant asks whether we 

 imagine such creatures would be liable to contagious 

 diseases or no. Should we not reply that all the circum- 

 stances seemed such as must favor the development of 

 such disorders V 



At any rate, during the last two months, I have been 

 able to make out no le.ss than five, or, possibly six, dis- 

 tinct disorders arising from that number of specifically 

 different germs, all of which will require prolonged atten- 

 tion if anything very definite is to be arrived at respecting 

 them. In addition, I suspect strongly that true bee- 

 diarrhoea will also turn out to be an infectious disorder, 

 but since specimens fail me, the question must remain, so 

 far as I am concerned at least, till another season. 



A considerable number of cases have occurred in which 

 numerous bees, small, hairless, and glossy, have been 

 dragged nokntes volentes to the hive door and then and 

 there evicted, while in other cases crowds of these 

 abnormal bees have died immediately in front of their 

 homes. The question has been referred many times to 

 the pundits, " What are these bees '?" The reply has 

 usually given the information that " the bees are robbers, 

 old felons indeed who have so often been severely mauled 

 in being turned out from the communities they were 

 plundering, that all the hairs of their bodies had been 

 pulled out." Quite satisfactory is this, if one knows 

 nothing of the subject, but a little acquaintance with the 

 form of the mouth and foot of the bee would show this 

 reply to be most opposite to known facts. The hairs of 

 bees are of four distinct kinds, but none of them are of 

 such shape or size that they can be pulled off in an en- 

 counter. Tlie foot has a most beautifully delicate pad 

 centrally placed together with four very long and pliable 

 feeling-hairs. On its sides are two double claws widely 

 set, and so contrived that they cannot nearly meet. With 

 such an instrument the grasping of hairs is impossible, 

 as it is also by the jaws, for reasons upon which space 

 forbids me to enter. But, although, the stereotyped 

 reply is no longer tenable, a new and sufficient explana- 

 tion is beginning to appear. 



Miss Gayton, so well known for her very successful 

 bee-keeping, has, fortunately for our subject, shown her- 

 self to be a most accurate and careful observer. This 

 lady has furnished me witli a number of bees of the kind 

 referred to, together with her notes and observations 

 running over a period of three years. These bees I find 

 in every case filled with a bacillus somewhat smaller than 

 Bac. alvei (the bacillus of foul brood), and which from 

 experiments made at South Kensington in the Biological 

 Laboratory have been already proved to be quite specific- 

 ally distinct. At present I will content myself by saying 

 that in this as in two or three cases the loss of hair is due 

 to defective nutrition, the same cause that makes the 

 writer so sympathetic with those whose heads are poorly 

 clothed. Some years ago I discovered that if hairs of 

 young bees are by accident broken, tliey are reproduced 

 by growing from "the ends as does an injured lobster's 

 claw. I have some most interesting cases of partial 

 reproduction of hairs of bees mounted for the microscope. 



