AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



219 



Topics of Interest. 



Errors RtsDectiDg Foal-Brood Exposed. 



S. CORNEIL. 



On pages 326, 518 and 726 of the A. 



B. J. for 1890, are three articles by Mr. 



C. J. Robinson, on Foul-Brood. These 

 articles contain several serious errors, 

 which, to say the least, will tend to 

 create confusion of ideas, on a subject 

 not generally well understood. I pur- 

 pose correcting some of those errors, but 

 instead of advancing opinions of my own, 

 I shall quote from the writings of recog- 

 nized authorities, believing that this will 

 be more satisfactory to the reader. 



Error No. 1. — Mr. Robinson says "I 

 was the first who pointed out in 1882, 

 that foul-brood was the result of bac- 

 teria.*' On page 172 of the B. B. J. for 

 1880, in an editorial on foul-brood, I 

 find the following : "Its cause was 

 reported in the British Bee Jouimal, Vol. 

 II, 1874, wherein it was shown to be 

 owing to the presence and growth of 

 micrococci in the larvae of the bee." This 

 discovery was made by Cohn. A full 

 account may be found in Pestluft and 

 Faul Brut, by P. J. Liska, 1876. The 

 honor of priority of discovery belongs to 

 the scientist, Dr. Cohn. 



Error No. 2. — Mr. Robinson says : 

 •' When certain conditions are present, 

 fermentation occurs spontaneously," 

 also, " Bacteria or microbes are gener- 

 ated wherever the conditions are favor- 

 able for fermentation." In Microbes, 

 Ferments, and Moulds, by Trouessart 

 (Vol. 57, International Scientific Series) 

 page 66, I find the following : "Fer- 

 mentation takes place wherever an 

 organic compound undergoes changes of 

 composition, under the influence of an 

 organic embryogenous substance, called 

 a ferment, which acts in small quanti- 

 ties, and yields nothing to the-fermented 

 substance. (Gautier.) This nitrogenous 

 substance is regarded by naturalists, as 

 a living being." 



In his work, Floating Matter in the 

 Air, page 346, Tyndal says : "The act 

 of fermentation, then, is the result of 

 the efforts of the little plant to maintain 

 its respiration by combined oxygen, 

 when its supply of free oxygen is cut oflp. 

 As defined by Pasteur, fermentation is 

 life without air." 



Marshall Ward, in the Encyclopoedia 

 Britannica Art. Schizomycetes, says : 

 "The growth and development of a 

 schizomycete (bacterium) in an organic 



medium results in the breaking down of 

 the complex food material into simple 

 bodies, which may then be oxydized and 

 further decomposed. Such processes are 

 known as fermentation, in the wider 

 sense. When proteid substances are 

 decomposed by schizomycetes, and evil 

 smelling gases escape, the process is 

 spoken of as putrefaction." So much 

 for the cause of fermentation and putre- 

 faction. 



"The " little plants " which produce 

 fermentation, putrefaction, and foul- 

 brood, are not generated spontaneously, 

 but owe their origin to the source which 

 caused the existence of all animal and 

 vegetable life. 



Marshall Ward, in the article quoted 

 above, says: " Every case adduced as 

 one of spontaneous generation broke 

 down," also, " No case of so-called spon- 

 taneous generation has withstood rigid 

 investigation." 



In his article on Biology in the Ency- 

 clopoedia Britannica, Huxley says : " The 

 fact is, that at the present moment, there 

 is not a shadow of trustworthy evidence, 

 that abiogenesis (life originating with- 

 out previous life) does take place, or has 

 taken place, within the period during 

 which the existence of life on the globe 

 is recorded." 



Error No. 3. — Mr. Robinson says : 

 " All living bodies throughout are per- 

 vaded by animalcules — spores or minute 

 seeds — and perchance they are vivified 

 by some abnormal conditioir that fosters 

 hatching into microbes," also, "The 

 moment life is extinct, the spores begin 

 to ply their role, hatch into microbes, 

 etc." 



This is the theory held by those who 

 oppose the germ theory of disease. They 

 say the presence of microbes in the 

 tissues, in disease, is a secondary phe- 

 nomenon, a result of the disease, and 

 not its cause. The advocates of the 

 germ theory meet this by proving that 

 spores or microbes have no existence in 

 the tissues of healthy animals. The 

 amusing part of it is that Mr. Robinson 

 takes both sides of the question. 



On page 392 of the British Bee Jour- 

 nal for 1887, the editor says: "The 

 experiments of Drs. Ferrier and Sander- 

 son show that bacteria do not normally 

 exist in the fluids and tissues of the 

 body, but their occasional presence in 

 animal fluids may be traced to external 

 surface contaminations." Trouessart, 

 already quoted, says, page 172: "Pas- 

 teur has shown that they (microbes) are 

 not found in the blood of a healthy man." 



In regard to the microbes "plying 

 their role the instant vitality ceases to 



