NOSEMA-DISEASE. 3 



NAME OF DISEASE. 



About 60 years ago Donhoff (1857, March) discovered small oval 

 bodies upon examining microscopically the stomachs from adult bees 

 which he supposed had died of exposure. He sent some of the bees 

 to Leuckart, who after an examination of them expressed the belief 

 that the oval bodies were the spores of a fungus C'Pilz"). The dis- 

 order was referred to by Donhoff (1857, August) by the term "Pilz- 

 sucht" (fungous disease). 



These observations apparently had been practically forgotten at 

 the time Zander (1909) reported his studies on a disease of adult 

 bees in which he foimd small oval bodies in the walls of stomachs 

 taken from affected bees. These were in fact the parasites that 

 cause the disease. To the germ Zander (1909) gave the name 

 Nosema apis and for the disease he (1911) used the name ''Nosema- 

 seuche." 



The disorder studied by Donhoff and the one studied by Zander 

 are almost without question one and the same condition. It will be 

 noted that each of these men in referring to the disorder used a term 

 containing a reference to the parasite considered by each, respectively, 

 as being its cause. The term " Nosema-disease, " ^ which the writer 

 (1914) has suggested as the common name^ for the disease, is not a 

 new one, it will be observed, but simply an English translation of the 

 term " Nosema-seuche " used by Zander. 



In Switzerland '^Nosemakrankheit" (Nosema-disease) (Nussbau- 

 mer, 1912; Angst, 1913) is the term commonly used in referring 

 to the disease. In Denmark Bahr (1915) used the term "Nosema- 

 sygdommen ' ' (Nosema-disease) . 



The name "Nosema-disease" possesses certain features which com- 

 mend it: (1) It is definite, as it can refer only to the disease caused by 

 Nosema apis ; (2) it suggests the nature of the disease by referring to 

 its cause ; (3) it is readily understood ; and (4) it is not long. 



Care should be observed that Nosema-disease is not confused with 

 dysentery. Leuckart (1857, March) early raised the question regard- 

 ing its relation to dysentery. The question was soon afterwards 



> It will be observed that there are two parts to the name and that the name of the disorder is not 

 "Nosema," but "Nosema-disease." It is suggested, therefore, that the name be written, for the present 

 at least, as a compound word. By so doing the difficulty which has been experienced by some will be 

 avoided. 



' While working on a disorder which had received the common name "Isle of Wight disease," Fantham 

 and Porter (1911), in England, encountered a protozoan parasite belonging to the group Microsporidia 

 which they identified as being Nosema apis. In selecting a technical name for the disorder caused by the 

 parasite they chose the term "Microsporidiosis," derived, as will be observed, from the group name Micro- 

 sporidia, under which the parasite is classified. The name is, therefore, an appropriate one. The term 

 has received some criticism on account of its length and possibly on account of its not being readily 

 understood. 



As the parasite is now believed to belong to the genus "Nosema," the writer begs to suggest that as a 

 technical name for the disorder the term "nosemosis" would have some arguments in its favor. This 

 is not to be interpreted as proposing a substitute for the earlier term " Microsporidiosis." It is meant, 

 rather, as aa explanation of it. 



