48 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



stated that I was not attacking the germ 

 theory of disease. It is too firmly established 

 to be affected by argument. In the main, I 

 believe in it thoroughly. I also believe, and 

 in this belief I am only the follower of at 

 least a ' respectable minority,' that the fact 

 that bacilli are to be found in diseased tissue 

 is not in itself a proof that that particular 

 form of bacillus is the cause of the diseased 

 condition. 



It also seems to be a fact that very careful 

 experiments have sometimes failed for a 

 time to show the distinction between cause 

 and effect. For instance, a newspaper item 

 recently stated that late investigations had 

 decided that the ' comma bacillus " — the dis- 

 covery of which caused such a sensation in 

 the scientific world — was not the cause of 

 cholera, but merely a companion of the dis- 

 ease, the real cause or which must be looked 

 for further. I did not pursue the subject 

 further, so I cannot say how much of the 

 truth there may be iuthe report, but it serves 

 to illustrate my position, that it is very easily 

 possible for the bacteriologist to jump at 

 conclusions, and hastily decide that the 

 microbe so plainly in evidence in the matter 

 under investigation and in his subsequent 

 cultures, is the very one for which he is look- 

 ing, the cause of the diseased condition, 

 when perhaps some other microbe, more 

 minute or elusive, is the real cause. 



I have never questioned Mr. Cheshire's 

 discovery of 6aci7/ns alvei. He may appear 

 to have succeeded perfectly in its isolation 

 and culture. What I claim is, that there is 

 room for a reasonable doubt that this bacil- 

 lus is the cause of foul brood. I base this 

 doubt upon the well proven fact that those 

 who have attempted its cure along the lines 

 laid down by the bacteriologists, have met 

 with almost uniform failure while those who 

 have discarded their teachings, and followed 

 methods which presuppose another cause 

 for the disease, have met with as uniform 

 8UCC38S. It appears to be simply a case 

 where the facts do not fit the theory. It is 

 said that a French theorist, upon being told 

 that the facts did not agree with his theory, 

 replied, ' Zen so much ze worse for ze facts.' 

 I regret to say that some of the writers on 

 this subject seem to have considerable of the 

 same spirit. 



It is my opinion that the real cause of foul 

 brood is yet to be discovered. In saying this, 

 I will readily admit that I have not myself 

 made microscopical investigation of the dis- 

 ease, and that my training in bacteriology 

 has peen somewhat limited. There are few, 

 though, that have had a larger practical ex- 

 perience with foul brood than I. All that 

 experience has gone to show that Cheshire's 

 conclusions are incorrect, and that the meth- 

 ods of cure advised by him, as well as all 

 similar methods, are inefficient, unsatisfac- 

 tory, and unreliaVjle. 



The disease is generally, if not invariably, 

 transmitted by means which the theorists 

 have considered unlikely to transmit it, while 

 those things they have pronounced most 

 likely to transmit it have utterly failed to do 

 so. Mr. Corneil has spent much argument 

 in the attempt to make bee-keepers believe 



that wax made from foul-broody combs was 

 dangerous, as liable to transmit the infection. 

 Granting his premises to be well-founded, 

 his conclusions, according to bacteriologists, 

 are quite correct. As a matter of fact, though, 

 I have made many hundreds of such combs 

 into foundation, the use of which did not 

 cause the disease in a single instance. No 

 evidence has ever been brought forward to 

 show that any of the thousands of pounds of 

 such wax used for this purpose has ever 

 caused foul brood. 



It may be that the cause of foul brood is a 

 bacillus yet undiscovered, or it may prove 

 that bacillus alvei is really the cause, and 

 that its investigators have simply been mis- 

 taken in regard to its manifestations, and 

 the best manner of dealing with it. In either 

 case, I see no reason to doubt that the dis- 

 ease may have its origin in decaying brood, 

 whether killed by chilling, starving, drown- 

 ing or suffocation. 



Do not understand me as saying that I be- 

 lieve in the spontaneous generation of life of 

 any kind. The experiments of Tyndall set- 

 tled this question conclusively in the nega- 

 tive. But before he could make these ex- 

 periments conclusive, he had to go to the 

 pure air of the upper Alps, away from the 

 contaminated and germ-laden air of the low- 

 er earth. These, and other experiments, 

 have proven that living germs innumerable 

 float in the atmosphere, undeveloped until 

 they fall upon a substance favorable to their 

 growth. Some of these germs are exceed- 

 ingly common, while others are extremely 

 rare. There might be hundreds of square 

 miles, for instance, in which none of the 

 germs of foul brood could be found. In 

 such places no case of dead brood could ever 

 develop into foul brood. In other places, 

 the air might be full of its germs, and every 

 case of putrefying brood, occurring under 

 the proper conditions of heat, moisture, etc., 

 furnishing a favorable soil for its growth, 

 might become a starting-point of infection. 

 However this may be, I doubt very much 

 that the disease is ever communicated to 

 healthy colonies except through the medium 

 of infected honey." 



A Condensed View of Current 



Bee Writings. 



E, E. HASTY. 



«M» SEE that an editorial note in the Amer- 

 ®) ican Bee-Keeper with the signature of 

 w^ "C." thinks out loud that Gleanings is 

 give too much space in these papers. Per- 

 haps I should watch out a little more to see 

 that I don'tneglect the juniors. But I'll say 

 this much "to wunst;" nothing like an 

 equal division of space among the journals 

 can be tolerated. Readers want the most 

 important new thoughts, without regard to 

 where they come from. I suspect, moreover, 



