38 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS ON APICULTUBE. 



TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 



The ultimate object in the investigation of diseases is the successful 

 treatment of them. Before a disease can be treated rationally the 

 diagnosis must be made; in other words, it must be determined what 

 disease is present. If, for example, the so-called " pickled brood " is 

 present in an apiary, the treatment will be quite different from what 

 it would be if American foul brood or European foul brood were 

 present; and if no disease is present, as sometimes happens, and the 

 bee keeper suspects a disease, it is important that a positive diagnosis 

 be made of this condition. 



There is no method by which bee disease can be so positively diag- 

 nosed as by the finding of the exciting cause in the affected and dead 

 bees. This fact is made use of in diagnosing samples of brood sent to 

 the laboratory and illustrates one important advantage in knowing 

 the etiology of disease. If we are to devise methods for treatment it 

 is important that we should know where the exciting cause exists, 

 under what conditions it grows, how it is carried from one place to 

 another, and how it may be destroyed. These facts are determined by 

 a study of the etiology of the disease, and it is upon such facts that 

 we should base the treatment. 



Those who are familiar with bee diseases are also familiar with 

 the different methods of treatment. It is not the purpose of the 

 writer to discuss any of the classical methods, but to suggest a few of 

 the principles upon which such methods must be based if they are to 

 be most effective. Treatment is both preventive and curative. 



PREVENTIVE TREATMENT. 



Too man}^ believe that the treatment of bee diseases consists in the 

 control or eradication of a disease after it is found in the apiary. 

 This is only the minor part of treatment — the curative. The treat- 

 ment which is of major importance is the preventive treatment. Pre- 

 vention is much easier than cure. To prevent disease in the apiary 

 is to keep it out. To keep it out is to keep out the exciting cause. In 

 order to keep out the exciting cause, it is desirable to know its dis- 

 tribution or where it is found. In American foul brood the exciting 

 cause, Bacillus larvae is found in immense numbers in the bodies of 

 diseased and dead larvae. These dead larvae, for the most part, are 

 allowed by the bees to remain in the brood cell as a scale. The honey 

 also has been demonstrated to contain the bacteria which produce this 

 disease. The pollen may be contaminated with the spores of this 

 disease-producing organism. The combs from an apiary affected 

 with American foul brood are a fruitful source of infection. The 

 inside of the hives which have contained colonies suffering with 

 American foul brood may be contaminated with the germs which 



