156 



EIGHTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



stacles encountered in the successful 

 pursuit of bee keeping is disease. 

 There are a number of diseases which 

 attack the honey bee. Those which 

 cause the greatest loss attack the 

 brood. These diseases are known to 

 the bee-keeper as American foul 

 brood, European foul brood, and pic- 

 kled brood. Considerable loss is sus- 

 tained also from paralysis and dysen- 

 tery. Other disorders of less impor- 

 tance are sometimes encountered. If 

 the apiarist is to treat these diseases 

 effectively it seems to me he should 

 become familiar as possible with their 

 etiology. Therefore I have chosen 

 this opportunity to discuss the causes 

 of bee diseases as far as they are 

 known, and to emphasize the impor- 

 tance of such knowledge in the treat- 

 ment. 



The word disease is made up of the 

 two parts: "dis" referring to a nega- 

 tive condition, and "ease" meaning a 

 state of rest. By combining the parts, 

 we have the very appropriate word 

 meaning a negative state of rest. We 

 are all familiar wth health w^hich is 

 the state of rest. It is the condition 

 which we experience when all the or- 

 gans of the body are, so to speak, in 

 a state of equilibrium. And departure 

 from this state of health is disease. 

 I would have you remember that dis- 

 ease is alike in nature in all the ani- 

 mal kingdom and differs only in kind. 

 To understand best the nature of 

 disease, we must study the causes of 

 disease. A number of factors may 

 combine and be responsible for a dis- 

 eased condition. This group of fac- 

 tors man combine and be responsible 

 fora diseased condition. This group 

 of factors is known as the etiology. 

 Etiology then means the causation of 

 disease. Let us further consider the 

 etiology of disease and use bee dis- 

 eases largely as illustrations. 



Etiology (Cause) of Diseases. 



Every abnormal condition in the 

 body of the bee, which we know as 

 disease, has a cause which has 

 brought about such a condition. In 

 most of the diseases of man and the 

 higher animals, comparatively little is 

 known of the etiology. Likewise and 

 unfortunately the same is true of bee 

 diseases. ^Sradually, but slowly, new 

 facts about all diseases are added to 

 our knowledge, the unfortunate thing 

 being that so many are reported as 



facts which have never been demon- 

 strated to be true. 



In the study of the etiology of a 

 disease and in the discussion of it, it 

 is convenient to divide the casual fac- 

 tors into predisposing and exciting. 

 Under the predisposing causes which 

 may be considered as factors in bee 

 diseases, we have age, sex, race, 

 heredity, climate and preexisting dis- 

 ease. Under the exciting causes, w^e 

 may consider food and microorganism. 



To illustrate, let us consider the 

 different factors just mentioned. 



Predisposing Causes. 



Age. — In your experience with hu- 

 man diseases, you have learned to ex- 

 pect scarlet fever more often in chil- 

 dren than in adults; to expect typhoid 

 fever in young adults and cancer in 

 those more advanced in life. In bee 

 diseases, we expect European foul 

 brood to attack larvae that are 

 younger than those which suffer from 

 American foul brood. We expect the 

 so-called "Pickled brood" to die just 

 before or after capping, while paral- 

 ysis is, as far as we know, a disease of 

 adult life. 



Sex. — Of some importance -in human 

 diseases is the factpr sex. Appen- 

 dicitis and diabetes, for example, 

 occur more frequently in men, while 

 cancer is more frequent in women. 

 In bee diseases, we expect in Ameri- 

 can foul brood to And the worker 

 larvae more often attacked than the 

 drone, while in European foul brood 

 this difference, if it exists, does so 

 only to a slight degree. 



Heredity. — You are all familiar with 

 the fact that heredity is considered as 

 an important predisposing factor in 

 tuberculosis, gout, insanity, etc. It is 

 interesting that in the so-called "pic- 

 kled brood" there is some evidence 

 which indicates that heredity plays an 

 important role. 



Race. — The negro is considered quite 

 susceptible to tuberculosis, while gout 

 is comparatively rare in the race. 

 Some bee-keepers believe that race is 

 an important factor in bee diseases. 

 Comparatively little is definitely known 

 on this phase of the etiology. 



Climate. — That some human diseases 

 are more frequent in some climates 

 than others is a fact familiar to us all. 

 That climatic conditions play a part in 

 bee diseases seems to be quite probable. 



