AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



801 



Fonl-Brood SDrea4 liy Comli-Fonnilatioii. 



S. COKNEIL. 



Now, that some of the raost prominent 

 manufacturers of foundation, as well as 

 several editors of the beo-periodicals 

 have expressed their views on the 

 question of infection in comb-foundation, 

 I ask for space for a partial reply, and 

 to give some additional facts bearing on 

 the question. 



Mr. Dadant is in error when he says 

 (American Bee Journal, page 470) 

 that the number of bee-keepers I alluded 

 to as having raised the question of 

 infection'by means of foundation is only 

 four. I wanted to show that the subject 

 is one on which bee-keepers are not 

 agreed, and I quoted four on one side of 

 the question, and four on the other, 

 which was quite sufficient for my 

 purpose. 



Since it is evident that Mr. Dadant 

 has missed, or forgotten, these items In 

 the bee-periodicals published in English, 

 the fact that he does not recollect 

 noticing any such items in the periodicals 

 published in France, Germany, Italy, or 

 Switzerland is not good proof that the 

 bee-keepers in tliese countries have not 

 raised the question. I am sure that 

 bee-lveepers "in Europe and America" 

 will not soon forget their deep obligation 

 to Mr. Dadant for the information that, 

 " with Mr. Cornell England is Europe, 

 and the United States America." 



Mr. Dadant argues that because 

 Pasteur taught that a temperature of 

 140^ kills the "seeds of disease" in 

 wine, therefore, 150^ will Ivill the 

 spores of foul-brood in wax. I do not so 

 understand Pasteur. Trouessart, in his 

 work on "Microbes, Ferments and 

 Moulds," quotes from Pasteur's book, 

 "Etudes les sur vins," as follows : "The 

 source of the diseases which affect wine 

 consists in the presence of parasitic 

 microscopic plants, which are found in 

 wine under conditions favorable to their 

 development, and which change its 

 nature, eitlier by the withdrawal of what 

 they take for their own nutriment, or, 

 still more, by the formation of fresh 

 products which are due to the multipli- 

 cation of these parasites in the wine." 



From this it is plain that Pasteur does 

 not teach that the spores or " seeds of 

 disease" are killed by a heat of 140^\ 

 as alleged by Mr. Dadant, but that it is 

 the growing microscopic plants which 

 are destroyed by this temperature. The 

 spores of these plants or ferments are air 

 germs, introduced before the wine is put 



into the casks ; like noxious seeds in the 

 soil, they are harmless till they germi- 

 nate and multiply, which they do by 

 budding and bipartition, no spores being 

 formed while the nutriment in the wine 

 lasts. 



Mr. Dadant is not the first who has 

 failed to discriminate between spores 

 and microscopic plants in active growth. 

 Regarding such mistakes, Tyndal writes: 

 "The failure to distinguish between 

 these stubborn germs and the soft and 

 sensitive organisms which spring from 

 them, has been a source of error in 

 writings on biogenesis." 



In my article, on page 447, I stated 

 that so far as I then knew the lowest 

 temperature at which the spores of 

 bacillus alvei, when in their most 

 resistant condition, are invariably killed 

 had not been determined, nor has it been 

 so far as I yet know ; but I now find that 

 good work has been done in this direc- 

 tion, of which I was not then aware. I 

 am indebted to my friend Dr. P. Burrows, 

 of this place, for calling my attention to 

 Vol. XIII, Papers and Reports of the 

 American Public Health Association. 

 This volume contains the report of Dr. 

 G. M. Sternberg, Chairman of the Com- 

 mittee on Disinfectants. 



Under the directions of Dr. Sternberg, 

 experiments were made in the biological 

 laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, 

 Baltimore, to test the effects of chemicals 

 on the spores of several kinds of 

 microbes, including the microbe of foul- 

 brood. Dr. Sternberg himself made 

 experiments to test the effects of heat as 

 a germicide, and in two of his experi- 

 ments he included the spores of bacillus 

 alvei. 



His first experiment showed that the 

 spores of foul-brood were not killed by a 

 10 minutes' exposure to 176^, nor by 

 an exposure of the same duration to 

 194°; but it showed that they were 

 killed by an exposure for 10 minutes to 

 212°. The results of the second 

 experiment showed that the spores of 

 bacillus alvei were not killed by an 

 exposure of 2 minutes to 212^, but that 

 they were killed by an exposure of 4 

 minutes to that temperature. 



Such experiments require costly 

 appliances, a great deal of time, 

 patience, skill, and good judgment. 

 The particulars furnished in Dr. Stern- 

 berg's Report on Disinfectants, show 

 that his experiments were conducted 

 with the care and skill which beget 

 confidence in the accuracy of the results 

 obtained. Although these experiments 

 were made in the interests of sanitary 

 science, bee-keepers are under great 



