200 THE PRACTICAL BEE GUIDE. 



trembling motion associated with paralysis (334) was not ob- 

 served by Mr. Imms. The disease is confined to adult bees, 

 and does not appear to affect the brood. The distension 

 referred to is caused by yellowish-brown material filling the 

 colon and containing an enormous number of pollen grains. 

 Ur. Maiden found plague-like bacilli in the chyle stomach of 

 diseased bees, and regarded these as the cause of the disease, 

 but he had not fully established iheir relationship, as he had 

 been wnable to demonstrate them in every case. In 1912, the Board 

 of Agriculture published a report by G. S. Graham-Smith, IVI. D. , 

 H. B. Fanthara, D.Sc. , Annie Porter, D.Sc, G. W Bullamore, 

 F.R.M.S., and W. Maiden, M.D., which described Nosemq. apis as 

 the agent responsible for most cases in which the symptoms of the 

 disease had been noticed, and cited numerous instances in which bees 

 had died after having been fed with honey contaminated with Nosema 

 apis, or from an infected hive, or after having been in contact with in- 

 fected bees : but this report did not claim to be final ; it confessed that 

 many problems remained unsolved. In 19167 Hr. Rennie, D.Sc, and 

 John Anderson, B.Sc, reported on the disease to the Royal Physical 

 Society of Edinburgh, declaring themselves unable to recognize any 

 causal relation between the presence of Nosema apis and the disease : 

 they found that deliberate infection with Nosema apis did not produce 

 the disease, that the disease occurs where the parasite cannot be 

 found, and is not necessarily conveyed by feeding on contaminated 

 stores, or by mere contact with contaminated hives, or combs. 

 In 1920, a report was made of the result of investigations carried 

 out by Dr. Rennie, Mr. Bruce White, and Miss Harvey, of the Uni- 

 versity of Aberdeen. A discovery had been made of the existence 

 of a type of parasitism in bees, which had been hitherto unknown — 

 an extremely diminutive mite, which invades the respiratory system, 

 and belongs to the genus Tarsonemus. This mite {Acarus), bred 

 within the bee, is confined to a limited, but important, region of the 

 breathing system. The mites block the air tubes, cut off the air 

 supply from surrounding organs, seem to feed on the blood of the 

 bee, and possibly affect the blood with a specific virus, and, by 

 the investigators, are believed to be the cause of what has hitherto 

 been known as "Isle of Wight Disease," for which name it is pro- 

 posed to substitute the title "Acarine Disease." The mite has 

 been named Tarsonemus ivoodi. No remedy has been discovered by 

 the investigators ; and until such shall have been found, it is recom- 

 mended that affected stocks be destroyed. Various drugs have been 

 advertized as preventives, or cures, but no satisfactory evidence, 

 either of prevention or cure, by any drng, is forthcoming. 



