714 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



then most sensitive to the action of 

 heat. But if they are dry and indurated 

 they are not only very obdurate as re- 

 gards the effect of heat, but ihey often 

 resist the action of boiling vv^ater for 

 hours, because the water does not readily 

 penetrate their desiccated covering. 



If the spores in wax were in the sen- 

 sitive state described above, I frankly 

 admit Mr. Dadant's process would steril- 

 ize his wax. Mr. Dadant says they are 

 in this state, and he undertakes to show 

 that not only the spores, but all foreign 

 particles, have the wax with which they 

 are encased, replaced by water during 

 the process of boiling. He says "Our 

 object in melting wax with water is to 

 wet all the particles of extraneous mat- 

 ter to get rid of them. These particles, 

 when soaked with water, are heavier 

 than melted wax, and even the smallest 

 and lightest substances sink to the bot- 

 tom. Sometimes we find bits of paper 

 which, soaked with wax, are so trans- 

 parent that it seems impossible to sep- 

 arate the two substances, yet, when our 

 cakes of wax are cold we find the paper 

 altogether clear of wax. Suppose that 

 instead of paper we have a spore of foul- 

 brood ; will this spore remain dryer than 

 the paper ?" 



Since the gist of the above argument 

 is that the wax in the paper is replaced 

 by water, which causes the paper to 

 sink, and, reasoning by analogy, that 

 the wax with which spores are encased 

 is replaced by water in just the same 

 way; we shall test by experiment the 

 accuracy of Mr. Dadant's observation of 

 the facts. 



I cut a slip from the margin of a 

 newspaper which I place in water, and I 

 find that it sinks to the bottom, not be- 

 cause the water it absorbs makes it 

 heavier specifically, but because the 

 paper itself is heavier than water. As 

 wax is lighter than water, clean dry 

 paper should sink in melted wax, even 

 more readily than it does in water. I 

 next place pieces of dry paper in melted 

 wax, and, as was expected, down they go 

 to the bottom, almost like shot. 



From these two simple experiments 

 the conclusion is inevitable that Mr. 

 Dadant is mistaken when he says the 

 paper sinks through the melted wax in 

 his molds, only because it is made 

 heavier by being soaked with water. 



We shall next test the accuracy of Mr. 

 Dadant's observations, regarding the 

 wax being replaced by water during the 

 process of boiling. 



In a vessel containing clean boiling 

 water I place a piece of paper which has 

 been dipped in wax, in order, if possible. 



to free it of wax, and to saturate it with 

 water instead. I have at hand a hot 

 smoothing iron and a piece of writing 

 paper, so as to find if, after the boiling 

 process, there is even a trace of the wax 

 remaining in the paper; but thesmopth- 

 ing iron and writing paper are unneces- 

 sary, because, after boiling the waxed 

 paper for a longer time than it is ever 

 boiled in Mr. Dadant's tank, I find that 

 it is still stiff and semi-transparent with 

 wax. I repeat the boiling, this time 

 forcing the paper below the surface of 

 the water, and the result is the same. I 

 place the waxed paper between folds of 

 the writing paper and apply the hot 

 iron, and I find I have great blotches of 

 wax. 



Since the wax is not replaced by 

 water, when the paper is boiled in water 

 without wax, it is much less likely to be 

 so replaced, when boiled in Mr. Dadant's 

 tank, containing a small quantity of 

 water, and a large quantity of melted 

 wax. 



It must now be clear to the reader 

 that in Mr. Dadant's molds all foreign 

 matters, including foul-brood spores, 

 remain like the paper, encased in wax. 

 If they sink it is because they are specific- 

 ally heavier than wax, and not because 

 they become soaked with water, as 

 alleged by Mr. Dadant. 



When I first took up this subject I 

 coated some garden seeds with melted 

 wax, and I exposed others from the 

 same paper, which were not coated, to 

 the same temperature. The latter 

 sprouted when placed in wet flannel in 

 a warm room, but the former, treated 

 similarly, showed no signs of sprouting, 

 because they could not absorb water. 

 They remained dry in their coating of 

 wax, although wrapped in wet flannel. 

 It is just so with the spores of foul- 

 brood in Mr. Dadant's tank; they 

 remain dry in their coating of wax, and, 

 as previously shown, require probably a 

 temperature of 2S4P for three hours, to 

 destroy their vitality, or a still longer 

 time at a lower temperature. 



The foregoing are very simple experi- 

 ments. Let the reader repeat them for 

 himself, and he will be convinced that 

 Mr. Dadant has not been as accurate in 

 observing facts as he should have been. 



But I may be asked this question : If, 

 as you say, spores encased in wax are 

 dry, and cannot germinate, because 

 they cannot imbibe water, is this not 

 exactly their condition when in a sheet of 

 comb-foundation? I answer: Yes, this 

 is quite true ; so long as the spores are 

 imbedded in the wax, they are harmless. 

 This answers all Mr. Dadant's remarks 



