272 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



upon the latter two, together with a vig- 

 orous beating of the face and "breast with 

 a cold moist cloth, with quick, short 

 sharp blows. This excites the activity of 

 the heart; and when that is done the 

 most is accomplished. But if this is in- 

 effectual, then artificial breathing should 

 be resorted to, by grasping the lower part 

 of the breast with both hands, quickly 

 compressing the ribs, and as quickly re- 

 leasing them, continuing until the patient 

 breathes regularly. Rhythmical raising 

 of the arms and quickly lowering them 

 also helps, but this needs some skill. 



THK DICKEL THEORY — THK WORKERS 

 DETERMINIEG THE SEX. 



As Mr. L. Stachelliausen,in the Decem- 

 ber Southland Queen, has already sum- 

 marized the chief points involved in the 

 discussion of the Dickel theory, I will 

 only say here that editor Dickel, of the 

 Noerdliche Bienenzeitung, said at the 

 Salzburg convention that he has transfer- 

 red eggs by a pin with a bent point from 

 drone-cells into worker-cells, and given 

 these to a colony made queenless three 

 or four days, and that both workers and 

 queens developed from these eggs; also 

 that when young drone larvte are moved 

 and worker larvtt put in their places, and 

 these given to a colony made queeidess 

 three or four da}s, that workers, queens, 

 and drones will be raised from these larvLt. 

 On these experiments and other consider- 

 ations he builds his own theory that every 

 egg is fertilized, and that the workers 

 determine its sex at will by special secre- 

 tions. 



HONEY FOR THE COMPEEXION. 



Herr Maurus says that Roumanian girls 

 often mix honey with water for washing 

 face and hands, and affirm that it produ- 

 ces a very fine complexion. 



Montrose, Colo. , Aug. 22, 1S99. 



Department of 



riticism 



CONDUCTED BY R. L. TAYEOR. 



The best critics are they 

 Who, with what they gaiu.say. 

 Offer another and better way. 



THE VIT.\EITY OF FOUE BROOD GERMS. 



HOW THE PROBLEM NOW 



STANDS. 



The problem as to the amount of heat 

 necessar}' to render honey infected with 

 fotil brood safe for feeding to bees is pro- 

 voking some attention, as it ought, both 

 from a practical and a scientific point of 

 view. It will be remembered that editor 

 Root of Gleanings recently gave up his 

 opinion that "a few minutes" at the boil- 

 ing point rendered such honey innocuous 

 to bees, and went to the other extreme, 

 now holding that two and a half or three 

 hours' boiling is necessary to render it 

 safe as food for bees. He appears not to 

 have noticed that an experiment has been 

 made by F. C. Harrison, B. S. A., Bacte- 

 riologist, Ont. Agricultural College, 

 which appears to sustain him in his later 

 opinion. Mr. Harrison prepared test 

 ttibes in three different waj's, viz., with 

 dry spores, spores in honey, and spores 

 in water. These tubes were then sus- 

 pended in boiling hone}' which reach- 

 ed the temperature of 113°, C, to 

 116°, C, which is equivalent to about 

 235° to 240° F. Every fifteen minutes 

 spores were removed from the tubes and 

 put in nutrient media kept at the proper 

 temperature for promoting growth, with 

 the result that growth was obtained from 

 spores from each preparation after 2 hours 

 and 15 minutes boiling, and from two of 

 the preparations after 2 hours and 30 min- 

 utes boiling. I say this experiment ap- 

 pears to sustain editor Root in his present 

 opinion, but there is another side, for even 

 scientists must reckon with practical af- 



