NEW York; 

 QAjrden 



OF THE 



ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 



AUGUST 1885. 



TEANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 



XL — The Pathogenic W story and History under Cultivation of 

 a neiv BaciUiis (B. alvei), the Cause of a Disease of the Hive 

 Bee hitherto knoivn as Foul Brood. By Frank K. Qheshire, 

 F.R.M.S., F.LS., and W. Watson Cheyne, M.B , F.K.C.S. 



{Bend Uth March, 1885.) 

 Plates X. & XI. 



Part I. — Pathogenic History. (By Mr. Cheshire.) 



Some indistinct references made by ancient writers as early as the 

 Christian era to a devastating disease existing then amongst 

 domesticated bees, render it not unHkely that the malady known 

 as " foul brood " is far from a novelty ; but be this as it may, it is 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES X. and XL 



Fig. 1. — Residue of larva three days dead of Bacillus alvei. b, bacilli. Spores 

 and degenerateil traclitse cover the field. 



Fig. 2. — Healthy juices of larva. 



Fig. 3.— Juices of larva (living) with disease in acute stage, a a, leptothrix 

 forms. 



Fig. 4. — Bee-comb from a diseased stock, a a, cells containing healthy pupse. 

 6 6, cells in which pupae have died; the covers are sunken and often tf^rn or 

 punctured. 



Fig. 5. — Cultivation in sterilized agar-agar showing the colony-form. 



Fig. 6. — Same cultivation twenty-four hours later. 



Fig. 7. — Passage of spore in bacilhis condition. 



Fig. 8. — Passage of bacillus in spore condition. 



Fig. '.). — Bacillus alvei grown in Jdnod-serum. a «, spores. 



Fig. 10.- Spores in lino from agar-agar cultivation. 



Fig. 11. — Bacilli budding? from a cultivation. 



Fig. 12.— Cultivation in thin layc-r of peptonized gelatin, showing colony- 

 form find bursting-off of lines of bacilli. 



Fig. 13. — Drawing from another flat cultivation. 



Fig. 14.— Flat cultivation more enlarged ; the bacilli by liquefying the gelatin 

 form tracks along which they freely swim backwards and forwarrln. a, baclllua 

 swimming along track. 6, bacilli in raa.ss. c, bacilli breaking from conccntrio 

 rings of growth previously formed. 



Kf.r. 2.— Vol. V. 2 Q 



