78 



American bee journal. 



working harder over it than you need 

 to." 



" Only because it is a great deal more 

 interesting to do a thing well than just 

 to do it. Let me read you something 

 from Wordsworth's sonnet about the 

 sonnet. He says : 



In truth the prison unto which we doom 

 Ourselves no prison Is ; 



meaning that if we are willing to take 

 pains there is a great deal of enjoyment 

 in working hard over a thing if it is a 

 very small thing. He gives a great 

 many comparisons about nuns being 

 contented with their narrow convents, 

 and hermits in their cells, and students 

 in their libraries, and weavers at the 

 loom ; and here, oh here is an allusion 

 to you, dear bee : he tells how — 



—Bees that soar for bloom. 

 High as the highest peak of Furness-fells, 

 Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells. 



"That is just what you meant, is it 

 not ? — that you are one of those he 

 speaks of who have felt the weight of 

 too much liberty ?" 



" Yes, that is what I meant; but I 

 think I said it better than he says it. If 

 it is a fine thing to say what you mean in 

 just fourteen lines, why is it not a finer 

 thing to say what you mean in fourteen 

 words ? And really it seems to me that 

 I put the whole of his sonnet into saying 

 that it is not for the honey that I care, 

 nor for the sonnet that you care ; but the 

 fun of the work." 



" The fun of the work ! That is a 

 new idea — but I believe you are right." 



Of course I am right. Sweetness is 

 all very well, but I should think it would 

 be very tiresome just to be sweet, like a 

 flower ; I had rather be a bee and have 

 to hunt for the sweetness." 



" And I had rather be a human being 

 and have to make things sweet. For, 

 after all, if a bee does not find sweetness, 

 he cannot have any, while people can 

 make it for themselves. Do you know, 

 by the way, that you have given me a 

 splendid subject for a poem ?" 



" Perhaps I have. But if you will 

 excuse me, I will be off to the clover 

 field, and my advice to you is, if you 

 must write a poem, try to put it in four 

 lines, instead of fourteen." 



So I tried, and this is the poem : 



Sweetness in being sweet, that's for the 

 flowers ; ^ 



Sweetness in finding sweets, that's for the 

 bee ; 

 Sweetness in making sweet sorrowful hours ; 

 That is the sweetness for you and me, 



— St. Nicholas. 



Gem Tleory of Fonl-Brool 



C. J. ROBINSON, 



On page 538 Mr. S. Cornell states his 

 factious objections to all that I have 

 written since 1882 on the subject of 

 foul-brood. 



Mr. Cornell starts in with the 

 erroneous assertion that I "lucidly 

 admitted that there is no such thing as 

 spontaneous generation ; that there are 

 no latent spores in living, healthy 

 tissues." 



This quotation is about the gist of 

 what I have been claiming, and that, 

 too, in the face of general opposition. I 

 claim to have discovered (Mr. C. alludes 

 to it as my " pretended discovery ") that 

 foul-brood originates by spontaneous 

 fermentation of dead brood — that spores 

 (seeds of ferment) are present in all 

 living tissues and all fermentable mat- 

 ter, and that, under certain conditions, 

 vegetation of the seeds or spores occurs. 



Foul-brood in bees, and small-pox and 

 measles are strictly fermentative dis- 

 eases. Any assertion or attempt to 

 show that I have in any wise admitted 

 anything different from the position 

 taken by me in the aforesaid claim is 

 false, as a perusal of my writings will 

 clearly show. 



Mr. Cornell occupies considerable 

 space, but he fails to touch the points 

 that forms the issue. He dwells on 

 what he calls my " pretended discovery," 

 claiming that I was the first who dis- 

 covered that foul-brood is a germ disease. 

 I have not claimed any such thing, in 

 the sense in which he puts it. All I ^ 

 claim to have discovered is that foul- 

 brood originates by reason of germs 

 being quickened in the way I set forth. 



Now, let us see how the case stands ! 

 He conceded, on page 220, that "there 

 is little doubt that Mr. Robinson had a 

 case of genuine foul-brood %n^opaaated 

 outside of the hive, but not as the result, 

 as he supposes, of spontaneous fermen- 

 tation." 



Please note that he squarely admits 

 my allegation, so far as it relates to the 

 propagating of a case of foul-brood, so 

 there is no question raised by him as to 

 the fact that I discovered (yet he now 

 sees fit to characterize it as a "pretended 

 discovery ") that foul-brood originated 

 in dead brood outside of the hive. Stick 

 a pin here, and then follow the special 

 points in the issue between Mr. Cornell 

 and myself. 



He sets up in the issue that the larvas 

 died in the combs left out of the hive, 



