DISEASES OF BEES. 233 



deposits some of her eggs the wrong way upwards, 

 and that these putrefy in the cells and contaminate the 

 others. Whatever may be the origin, one thing is very 

 certain, "it is catching;" there is, however, in the cir- 

 cumstance of the adult bees and of those about emerging 

 from the cells not being injuriously affected thereby, 

 a great help to its eradication, as will presently be 

 shown. 



There are two kinds of foul brood— one is moist and 

 foetid, the other is dry and not contagious, the brood 

 merely drying up in the cells, and, from its partial cha- 

 racter, is probably within the power of the bees them- 

 selves to overcome. In the former, instead of drying up, 

 the brood remains dark and slimy in the cells, and 

 emits a most unpleasant odour, perceptible at some dis- 

 tance from the hive. 



In the year 1848, Pastor Dzierzon lost a large number' 

 of stocks from this disease ; he, however, was enabled to 

 banish it from his apiary, and communicated to a 

 German bee-joiimal very wholesome advice, which 

 Mr. Langstroth quotes, and from which we make an 

 extract: — "\N^en the riialady makes its appearance in 

 only two or three of the colonies, and is discovered early 

 (which may readily be done in hives having movable 

 combs), it can be arrested and cured without damage or 

 diminution of profit. To prevent the disease from spreading 

 in a colony, there is no more reliable and efficient process 

 THAN TO STOP THE PRODUCTION OF BROOD: for where no 



