STATE bee-keepers' ASSOCIATION. 149 



queen, does it necessarily follow that the disease will be 

 conveyed by that? It may be there without being conveyed. 

 But going back to the point before: Will foul brood be 

 carried in any other way than by the honey of the hive? 

 If the germs be carried from a diseased colony, no matter 

 what from, the disease may be conveyed to another hive. 

 The germs are in the brood. Isn't it possible that that 

 might be carried, sometimes, as well as the honey? I sup- 

 pose it is true that the honey is the principal medium, and 

 the usual medium, through which the disease is conveyed, 

 but surely it is not the only medium. If the diseased part 

 itself of the brood be in any way carried from one colony 

 to another, that would surely carry the disease. 



Mr. Wheeler — That is a good point the Doctor makes, 

 and one that is very important. The bees are continually 

 taking out that dead brood. I believe when the disease 

 first starts they keep it all clean. I believe the hive for 

 months is perfectly free of any signs of foul brood, and 

 yet they have it and we don't know it. They keep carry- 

 ing out every bit of foul matter and finally they have to give 

 up in despair. All this time that foul- brood has been carried 

 on the bottom-board and after a while some of it is left. 

 Now, the question is. Is the foul matter that is carried out 

 infectious? That is something worth inquiring into. The 

 question is whether we had better fumigate our hives and 

 burn them out or not. Some say yes, and some say no. 

 It is an important question. 



Mr. Abbott — This whole question hinges on how the dis- 

 ease gets into the animal. We lose sight of that sometimes. 

 Take for instance some germ diseases that are communicated 

 to human beings, such as tuberculosis in which the germ 

 that produces that must find a lesion some place. If -tthere 

 is a lesion on the outside of the body in some of the glands 

 and it lodges there it will take root and produce the disease, 

 so that you have tuberculosis of the different organs. It is 

 not always in the lungs. A great many people die of con- 

 sumption that never had anything the matter with their lungs ; 

 that is, from tuberculosis. As I understand, the develop- 

 ment of the germ of foul brood is only in the larva. In 

 what way does the germ get into the larva? Does it get 

 into it by contact and communicate itself by coming in 

 contact with the larva, or is it taken in by the alimentary 

 canal? There are some diseases that the human family get 

 that are taken in by the water they drink, such as typhoid 

 fever, and must be taken in in that way; they cannot be 

 communicated by coming in contact with a gland, but they 

 must come in contact with the inside of the human body 

 somewhere along the alimentary canal, mostly in the lower 

 bowels in typhoid fever. Now, then, if foul brood is a de- 

 velopment in the larva, in the alimentary canal, and it can 

 only be communicated by passing in in that way and coming 

 in contact with certain portions of the larva, then it must 

 be something that the larva will eat, to have the disease 

 communicated. The larva does not eat anything but honey. 



