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able confusion must be looked for in authors in 
reference to this complaint and those which, for 
want of a clearer understanding of them, we are 
compelled as yet to set down, with more or less 
inaccuracy, as milder forms of the next. We 
beheve, however, that there are still recognised an 
“uncontagious foul brood,” as well as a “‘ mild form 
of the contagious foul brood;” and a genuine 
example of the former, in its very mildest aspect, is 
presented in the case cited by the Baron from 
Spitzner, who, in 1781, set some thirty hives in a 
wood abounding with bilberries, and found, on 
bringing them home, that the combs, to a height of 
six inches, were coal-black, and all the larve dead ; 
these, he adds, the bees removed, and, after a week, 
the cells were reoccupied with brood, which ‘ throve 
splendidly.” Obviously, a trifling matter like this is 
as different as light from darkness when compared 
with the real brood-plague, under whose name it is 
at present classed. 
Foul Brood.—This formidable malady appears, like 
the Rinderpest, the potato blight, and some other 
epidemics, to have assumed almost its first existence 
in the course of the present generation. It is, 
however, probably alluded to by Bonner, in 1798, as 
‘‘a, disease which sometimes, though rarely, happens 
to bees;” but Aristotle’s mention of ‘‘a disease 
accompanied by a disgusting smell,” cited by Mr. 
Langstroth, may perhaps have had reference only to 
dysentery. At all events, Von Berlepsch tells us 
that in the famous bee country of Thuringia it was 
absolutely unknown until 1858, and that old Jacob 
