DISEASES, &c. 193 



Alcohol : a gas, condensible by cold to a clear, mobile fluid. 

 Formalin, the commercial article, is stated to be a 40 per cent, 

 solution; a powerful antiseptic, and caustic: the vapour is 

 irritating to the eyes and nose : the article should be used with 

 caution. When the disease is discovered in its early stages, 

 that is before it has reached the spore stage, it may be treated 

 with formalin as follows : — Make a solution of one part formalin 

 to four parts of water (Recipe 365). Procure a syringe, or a 

 glass and rubber " filler," such as is used with fountain pens, 

 and a piece of pointed stick. Remove a frame of affected comb, 

 and shake the adhering bees back into their hive : break, with 

 the stick, the cappings of the diseased cells, and, with the filler, 

 inject a drop or two of the solution into each of such cells. 

 When the stick is not actually in use, keep it in the bottle of 

 solution, and, at the close of the operation, burn it, and wash 

 the filler with solution before putting it aside for future use. 

 Next take a little of the solution, add twice as much water 

 (Recipe 366), and with this new solution saturate a piece of 

 cloth, or wool, and place it on the floor board : or, if you have a 

 ventilator in the floor board (85), place the cloth underneath 

 the perforated zinc, so that the fumes may ascend into the hive, 

 (Illus. p. 197), and renew the application, from time to time, as 

 required. Disinfect the clothes and hands immediately after- 

 wards, lest you should carry infection to other hives (Recipe 

 364). If there are no supers on the hive treated, feed gently 

 with medicated syrup (Recipe 321), which will be used by the 

 nurse bees in feeding the larvK. This remedy is a simple one 

 in its application, and has been proved to be most useful, 

 when adoirted in the early stages of the disease. 



355. Advanced Stages: Treatment by Burning It fre- 

 quently happens that bee-keepers, who are not familiar with the 

 early symptoms of the disease, do not discover its presence 

 until it has too far advanced to be successfully treated as 

 recommended above; that is, until there are present, not only 

 single, scattered, infected cells, but also uneven quantities of 

 diseased brood, with cells indented or perforated, and con- 

 taining the coffee-coloured, ropy mass described (350). In 

 this and subsequent stages, remedies, to be effective, must be 

 thorough!)' and continuously applied ; and, as has been said 

 above (353), if the stocks have been reduced to a condition of 

 uselessness, and if the owner is not prepared to tackle the 

 disease in a patient, determined manner, it will be wisest for 

 him, and more humane, to smother the bees, and to burn all 

 the contents of the hive ; thus, by killing the spores and de- 

 stroying the infected combs, etc., protecting his healthy colo- 

 nies. This should be done in the evening, when there are no bees 

 flying. The smothering of the bees may be best accomplished 



