170 



fHE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



this one is so concise and meaty that it 

 would take the equivalent of that to give a 

 fair idea of it. Almost any one can com- 

 mand time to read it ; and, being cheap, the 

 excuse for scientific ignorance of foul brood, 

 on the part of our rank and file of honey 

 men, is pretty much taken away. It is no 

 disgrace for a man to dissent from scien- 

 tific dogmas, but to dissent from what one 

 evidently does not comprehend, that is a lit- 

 tle disgraceful. Buy this book and read it 

 (Geo. W. York, Chicago), and get the com- 

 prehension that will enable you to dissent 

 like a man. 



And for the rest a little rather desultory 

 sampling must suffice. It is hardly practi- 

 cable, for instance, to condense the answer 

 to the question on page 9 : " How do germs 

 induce disease ?" The answer might with 

 profit be largely expanded instead of con- 

 densed. The upshot is, partly by their own 

 multiplication, feeding, scrabbling, ob- 

 structing passages, damaging surroundings ; 

 but still more by the queer chemical poisons 

 which they elaborate and pour out— their lit- 

 tle weapon, as the skunk's verjuice is his big 

 weapon. An array of invisible skunks in- 

 side the bulk of a grain of sand ! The germ 

 of foul brood, with its poison, injected into 

 mice, or other small animals, kills them 

 quickly. (Page 8.) Presumably it is the 

 poison that does the job both for the mice 

 and for the young bee. 



We have good evidence that the spores of 

 bacillus alvei are not thrown out into the air " 

 Page 13. 



This is arrived at by cultivating the germ 

 in a prepared chamber, and trying to make 

 it pass across short spaces. It will not do 

 so. If the spores floated in the air, thistle 

 down fashion, as some germ spores do, little 

 spaces would be no barrier. A point the 

 author makes on page 1.5 seems plausible. 

 All putrefaction is work done by different 

 sorts of germs ; and some putrefactive germs 

 also pour out poison. Enough of this dif- 

 ferent but analogous poison is sometimes 

 left in cells to kill the first brood reared in 

 them. Here the owner may think that he 

 has foul brood when there is nothing which 

 will propagate itself for any length of time 

 — poison, but no live poisoners to keep up 

 the supply of it. In free air foul brood 

 germs and spores soon die ; but protected 

 from the air their vitality, waiting a chance 

 to do mischief, lasts a long time. They also 

 grow best where very little oxygen can get— 



and belong to a subdivision with a queer 

 name that has that characteristic. 



He got one culture out of ten to grow after 

 the tube it was in had been under boiling 

 water 45 minutes. This is not quite so severe 

 as direct contact with boiling water ; but 

 the germ of foul brood is evidently a sala- 

 mander. No degree or repetition of cold 

 which he tried was fatal to the germ in any 

 case. But thoroughly exposed to the air 

 some of the germs died in 12 hours, most of 

 them in 24 ; and all were dead in 48 hours. 

 This is a good point to hold on to. It makes 

 rather improbable (but not quite impossi- 

 ble) the theory that bees carry the infection 

 on their legs to the anthers of flowers, and 

 then other bees carry the infection home to 

 other hives. 



" Spores exposed to atmospheric air do not re- 

 tain their vitality for a sufficient length of time 

 to reinfect a colony treated by a method which 

 delays brood-rearing more than four days after 

 infection has been effectually removed." Page 47. 



As a parting shot I would say, Look out 

 for the spores that have got sealed into the 

 propolis of the hive wall ( to be unsealed by 

 next summer's heat) and those that have 

 penetrated the dozy wood of the bottom 

 board. It don't require any floating in the 

 air to get there. Bees pull at the dirty 

 masses with their bills, and then wipe their 

 bills, dear doctors. 



RioHAKDS, Lucas Co., Ohio, May 25, '94. 



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