260 



MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 



stench, which is by no means agreeable, while later, the caps 

 are concave instead of convex, and have a little hole through 

 them. 



There is no longer any doubt as to the cause of this fear- 

 ful plague. Like the fell "Pebrine," which came so near 

 exterminating the " silk worm," and a most lucrative and 

 extensive industry in Europe, it, as conclusively shown by 

 Drs. Preusz and ShOnfeld, of Germany, is the result of fun- 

 gous or vegetable growth. ShOnfeld not only infected healthy 

 bee larvae, but those of other insects, both by means of the 

 putrescent foul brood, and by taking the spores. 



Fungoid growths are very minute, and the spores are so 

 infinitesimally small as often to elude the'sharp detection of 

 the expert microscopist. Most of the terrible, contagious 

 diseases thai' human flesh is heir to, like typhus, diphtheria, , 

 cholera, small pox, &c., &c., are now 'thought to be due 

 to microscopic germs, and hence to be spread from home 

 to home, and from hamlet to hamlet, it is only necessary 

 that the spores, the minute seeds, either by contact or by 

 some sustaining air current, be brought to new soil of flesh 

 blood or other tissue — their garden spot — when they at once 

 spring into growth, and thus lick up the very vitality of 

 their victims. The huge mushroom will grow in a night. So 

 too, these other plants — the disease germs^will develop 

 with marvelous rapidity ; and hence the horrors of yellow 

 fever, scarlatina, and cholera. 



To cure such diseases, the fungi must be killed. To pre- 

 vent their spread, the spores must be destroyed, or else con- 

 fined. But as these are so small, so light, and so invisible — 

 easily borne and wafted by the slightest zephyr of summer, 

 this is often a matter of the utmost difficulty. 



In " Foul Brood " these germs feed on the larvae of the 

 bees, and thus convert life and vigor into death and decay. 

 If we can kill this miniature forest of the hive, and destroy 

 the spores, we shall extirpate the terrible plague. 



REMEDIES. ' 



If we can find a substance that will prove fatal to the 

 fungi, and yet not injure the bees, the problem is solved. 

 Our G-erman scientists — those masters in scientific research 



