FOUL-BROOp. 477 



cappings are punctured, and that the brood has an offensive 

 odor.' — -(Bertrand, Revue Internationale d' Apiculture.) 



Two things are important in the detection of the disease 

 and on these we will insist, the ropiness and the glue-pot smell. 

 The ropiness gave the idea of the French name of the disease 

 "la loque" which means "rag, tatter." Evidently the French- 

 man who gave it a name noticed that the dead larva, if you 

 attempt to draw it out, comes in tatters, in rags, just as so 

 much hquid India rubber. The glue-pot smell is also plain. 

 These matters are important for there is a disease called 

 "sac brood" which is far from being as dangerous as foul- 

 brood and has most of the symptoms of foul-brood except 

 the ropiness and smell (801). 



791. CURE. For bacillus larvae, or American, ropy foul- 

 brood, several methods of cure by antiseptics were more or less 

 successful, in the hands of Hilbert, Chas. F. Muth and the 

 noted Swiss apiarist, Bertrand. The latter quite successfully 

 coped with the disease by the use of fumes of salicylic acid 

 through a method given in our former editions. He and 

 Cheshire also used, in the food of the diseased colonies, carboUc 

 acid in the proportion of an ounce to 40 pounds of syrup. 

 But the use of drugs, either in the food of the bees or in fumes 

 requires too careful and persistent treatment to be safe in a 

 general Way. As an evidence of this, we will quote Mr. E. R. 

 Root in the A B C of Bee Culture some years ago : 



"We did not get very satisfactory results by the use of 

 drugs, when foul-brood visited our apiary some years ago. We 

 did find, however, that they invariably held the disease in 

 check; but as soon as their use was discontinued, the disease 

 broke out again. While I do not advise one to place his sole 

 dependence on drugs, as an auxiliary to the regular treatment, 

 they might and probably would prove very efficacious. They 

 would also be very useful in preventing the breaking out of 

 the disease if all syrups fed to the bees were, medicated." 



