310 ' Foul Brood. 



which is by no means agreeable, -while later the caps are con- 

 cave instead of convex, and many will have a little hole 

 through them. 



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

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

 minating the silk worm, and a most lucrative and extensive 

 industry in Europe, it, as conclusivclY shown by Drs. Preusz 

 and Shonfeld, of Germany, is the result of fungous or veg- 

 etable 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 in- 

 fmitesimally small as often to elude the sharp detection of the 

 expert microscopist. Most of the terrible, contagious dis- 

 eases that human flesh is heir to, like typhus, diphtheria, 

 cholera, small pox, etc. , etc. , 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 di£5culty. 



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. 



Some of the facts connected with "Foul Brood" would lead 

 us to think that the germs or spores of this fungus are only 

 conveyed in the honey. This supposition, alone, enables us 

 to understand one of the remedies which some of our ablest 

 apiarists hold to be entirely sure. 



