220 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



exist," Trouessart says, page 235 : 

 "Some hours after death, all corpses 

 contain microbes, which have pene- 

 trated into the blood, owing to the soft- 

 ening of the tissues, and which either 

 come from the external air, or from the 

 digestive canal." On page 292, he says: 

 "It is however now known that when 

 dead bodies are protected from air 

 germs, they do not putrefy, but become 

 mummies. Such is the case with the 

 bodies which have been preserved for 

 several centuries in the crypt of one of the 

 churches of Bordeaux, and which, without 

 any antiseptic preparation, have gradu- 

 ally passed into the state of mummies." 

 Mr. Robinson's experiment, by which, 

 as he says, he "originated" foul-brood 

 in 1882, is easily explained. He unin- 

 tentionally left some combs of brood 

 exposed, out of the hive, till the larvae 

 died. When the resistance of the living 

 tissue cells ceased, the spores of bacillus 

 alvei, floating in the air, made a lodg- 

 ment, and found in the dead larv» a 

 congenial medium for their multiplica- 

 tion and growth. That the germs of 

 foul-brood do seize upon and multiply in 

 larvae which have died from other 

 causes, seems to be the unanimous opin- 

 ion of the leading bee-keepers in Ger- 

 many, Switzerland, England, and Amer- 

 ica, who have expressed themselves on 

 the question. The temperature of mid- 

 summer would be high enough, and the 

 combs being protected from drying, 

 there is little doubt that Mr. Robinson 

 had a case of genuine foul-brood propa- 

 gated outside the hive, but not as the 

 result, as he supposes, of spontaneous 

 fermentation, which, as I have shown, 

 never takes place, nor as the result of 

 the ' vivifying ' of the ' inherent ' spores, 

 which, as has been demonstrated, had no 

 existence in the healthy living brood. 



Error No. 4. — Mr. Robinson says: "The 

 microbes, though deadly poison to brood, 

 cannot harm fully fledged imago bees." 



Writing on foul-brood in the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal for 1887, page 549, 

 Prof. McLain says : "I found old bees 

 honey combed with bacteria." Hilbert 

 found them in mature queens and worker 

 bees. Schoenfeld also found them in 

 adult bees. The Britisli Bee Journal of 

 the 12th inst. contains a translation, 

 from the Revue Nativnale, of a paper on 

 foul-brood, by Dr. Lortet. This is one 

 of the most interesting papers which has 

 lately appeared. He has dissected bees 

 extensively under the microscope, and is 

 quite clear as to the infection of mature 

 bees. Perhaps the editor of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal may see fit to pub- 

 lish the paper in full. 



When several veracious and trust- 

 worthy men make observations, inde- 

 pendently of each other, and agree in 

 saying that they have seen the bacillus 

 of foul-brood in mature bees, their evi- 

 dence is more reliable than the opinions 

 of those who merely infer that adult 

 bees are not affected by the disease. 



In a letter to the late Wm. Raitt, pub- 

 lished in the Bee-Keepers' Record, of 

 which the following is an extract, Frank 

 Cheshire says: "Those who have no 

 microscope, or who lack the needed skill 

 for an examination, must see through 

 other's eyes. I have again and again, 

 in dozens of instances, seen queens sat- 

 urated with the disease, though the 

 majority perhaps in diseased stocks are 

 sound. If, after these assertions, others 

 proclaim that queens have an immunity, 

 I only ask how they prove their nega- 

 tive, and on what grounds do they doubt 

 those who have no interest to serve but 

 truth." I think it is high time that we 

 heard the last of the statement that the 

 bacillus of foul-brood does not affect 

 mature bees. 



In the 13 columns covered by Mr. 

 Robinson's articles there are other errors, 

 such for example as the statement that 

 foul-brood is not a disease, the statement 

 that consumption is not contagious ex- 

 cept by inoculation, the statement that 

 corrosive sublimate may be used as a 

 spray for combs containing diseased 

 brood, when it is known that any more 

 than one-fourth of the quantity required 

 to sterilize a litre of broth will kill a 

 man, and others, which want of space 

 prevents me from dealing with at pres- 

 ent. I trust the foregoing will be suffi- 

 cient to put the readers of the American 

 Bee Journal on their guard, and to 

 cause them to take Mr. Robinson's state- 

 ments, on the foul-brood question, with 

 a modicum of salt. 



p, s. — Since writing the above I have 



seen Mr. Robinson's article, page 73, but 



as there are no new points of importance,! 



shall not refer to it any further at present. 



Lindsay, Ont., Jan. 27, 1891. 



Haldiinand Bee-Keeiiers' Convention. 



The annual meeting of this Association 

 was held in Cayuga, Ont., Jan. 24, 1891, 

 President Rose in the chair. Minutes of 

 the last meeting were read and adopted. 



The election of officers was then held, 

 when the following were elected : Presi- 

 dent, Israel Overholt; Vice-President, 

 Robert Covcrdale ; Secretary and Treas- 

 urer, E. C. Campbell ; directors, Owen 



