36 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



were afterwards found to be free from dis- 

 ease but this course requires great care or at 

 least is not to be recommended without fur- 

 ther experiment. In all cases it is desirable to 

 place queen trap at the entrance of the new 

 hive to prevent the bees absconding. 



Lapeek, Mich, Jan. 23, 1894, 



The Propagation and Dissemination of 

 Foul Brood. 



S, OOKNEILi, 



" He could raise scruples dark and nice, 

 And after solve 'em in a trice."— fit/nfff. 



mHE editor of the 

 "T Review says, in 

 the January num- 

 ber, he does not un- 

 derstand why the 

 germs would not 

 iind a s favorable 

 conditions for their 

 propagation in 

 healthy brood, as 

 th'ey do in dead 

 brood. Well, the 

 reason is every 

 healthy larva has, in its amoeboid cells, an 

 army of germ killers, phagocytes, to protect 

 it from the invading germs, while in dead 

 brood, there being no protective cells, the 

 disease germs grow, and multiply without 

 resistance. But conditions may exist under 

 which foul brood germs may make a lodge- 

 ment, and grow in living larv*. 



First. It has been demonstrated that a 

 large number of germs may overcome the 

 protective force, and cause disease in a 

 healthy animal in which a smaller number 

 would have been harmless. Therefore if a 

 large number of germs floating in the air in 

 the hive, and alighting in the milky fluid, are 

 absorbed by the larvae, they may be so nu- 

 merous that the phagocytes cannot devour 

 them, and the result is disease. 



Secondly, It has been demonstrated that 

 any condition which lowers the vitality of 

 the animal renders it more susceptible to at- 

 tack from disease germs. Cold has been 

 proven to have this effect. Therefore if 

 larvw are badly chilled, their vitality is so 

 much reduced, that their phagocytes are 

 unable to absorb and destroy the germs of 



foul brood which mai fall in the cells, and 

 in this way the disease may be started. It 

 has also been demonstrated that hunger, 

 or lack of proper nourishment, has the effect 

 of lowering the vitality, so that the organism 

 becomes susceptible to the attac of disease 

 germs, which it would have resisted if it had 

 been properly nourished. To have bees in 

 the best condition to ward off disease, they 

 should, at all times, have plenty of food. It 

 has repeatedly been observed that, during a 

 bountiful and long continued honey flow, the 

 disease disappeared of its own accord, the 

 phagocytes having absorbed and devoured 

 the disease germs, owing to the liberal sup- 

 ply of nourishment. Other cases are on 

 record in which, during a honey flow, the 

 disease almost disappeared, but afterwards 

 returned with all its former virulence. I 

 venture the opinion that, in such cases, even 

 so simple a disinfectant as common salt in 

 the food, might have been suflicient to so 

 weaken the microbes that the balance would 

 have been turned against them, they would 

 have been overcome by thephagoCj^tes, and 

 the disease eradicated. 



Replying to the editor's criticism as to the 

 rotionale of the cure under the McEvoy 

 treatment, I would say that, even in the ab- 

 sence of disease, the nurse bees become too 

 old to act as such at the rate of, say, from 

 1,000 to 2,000 per day, and by the time the 

 first larva requires food the youngest nurse 

 is then ten days old, the age at which, at 

 least sometimes, they discontinue nursing, 



[^Some of the bees must act as nurses until 

 bees hatch out, which will be at least twenty- 

 five days from the time the bees were shaken 

 off, there are no younger ones to take their 

 places, — Ed, 



I have shown elsewhere that on account of 

 disease they may give up nursing, and die 

 much sooner. It is not contended that all 

 the bees of a hive are diseased, and it is 

 known that in some bees the disease seems 

 to be localized, and becomes chronic, while 

 in others the germs pervade the whole organ- 

 ism, causing early death. In the case of 

 nurse bees, having germs in their chyle 

 stomachs, but whose tissues have not been 

 invaded, it is reasonable to suppose that 

 during ten days active work in comb build- 

 ing the germs would probably pass into the 

 lower bowel, and perhaps be ejected, leav- 

 ing these nurses powerless to communicate 

 the disease. If we were to ask Mr, McEvoy, 

 or any of those who agree with him, how he 



