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FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT 



or the thing that might be mixed in the honey. Now, what- 

 ever does not mix with the food of the larva cannot carry 

 the disease, as I understand it. So that the question is,- 

 What condition of things must exist in order that this 

 germ be in the stuff that is fed to the larva? Because the 

 germ is harmless in honey, is harmless every place so far 

 as the disease is concerned, except it is in the alimentary canal 

 of the larva; and if there is not some way by which it 

 gets in there, it is as harmless as a chunk of sand, as I 

 understand it. It only gets in through the feed, and they 

 only feed bees honey, and the hive may be covered with the 

 germs and not affect it in the least. 



Mr. Dadant — I think Mr. Abbott was asking me the 

 question. I think he is very correct in that matter, and 

 the fact is, I was about to rise to make the same sugges- 

 tion, with this addition, that it is stated by authorities that 

 formic acid, "which is the constituent of the poison of the 

 bees, is an antidote for foul brood, and that would explain 

 why the bees never have foul brood and never suffer from it. 

 The bee carries its necessary antidote with it. It is quite 

 likely that the disease could only be transferred to the larva 

 by or through the honey, or through other larvae which, of 

 course, would pass it to the bee, and the bee pass it back 

 to the larva in feeding. It seems to me that is very con- 

 clusive^. At the same time, if there are any germs at all 

 in the hive, and they can be passed at all so as to be fed 

 to the larvae, it will promote it. 



Mr. Wheeler — You know if you put a clean super on 

 a hive of old combs and the bees go to work there, they will 

 drag from those old combs out onto the new comb and 

 jwill color them. Now isn't it possible for the bees to travel 

 Ifrom the bottom-board around this bad brood and drop those 

 had spores? Such questions as that are of vital importance, 

 and I think a little of the money that is raised ought to 

 be used for investigation, not entirely for going around and 

 doing this business. While I think you know all these points, 

 some man ought to be hired and paid for his time. It is 

 either yes or no; they either give that disease in that way 

 or they don't, and some man ought to be able to find it out. 



Mr. Swift — I think the bee-keepers will find the treat- 

 ment of foul brood is something like the practice of medicine. 

 What was first-class practice 25 years ago is bad to-day, and 

 it is only by experimenting and testing that we will ever 

 get at the right thing. There is no question — I found a 

 doctor here just the other day who told me that operations 

 that were frequent two years ago are condemned to-day by 

 the bulk of the profession, that is, by the advanced profes- 

 sion, and yet they were the popular and proper thing tw6 

 years ago. It may be the same thing in regard to foul brood. 

 Tentative work is the only thing. 



Mr. Root — Mr. Abbott has struck the key-note, it seems 

 to me, as to how foul brood is transmitted. If we take Mr. 

 McEvoy's experience, and the experience of foul-brood in- 

 spectors, it does not seem to be transmitted by the hive ex- 



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