CHAPTER XV. 

 THE ^DISEASES OF BEES. 



Dysentery : How Produced — Indications — Treatment. Foul-Brood : 

 two kinds — Nature — Propagation. Mr. Cheshire's Discoveries 

 and Treatment — Fatal Effects of Disease — Detection — Vertigo — 

 Analogy of Human and Bee Diseases. 



How far the diseases of domesticated animals are 

 due to the conditions to which they are subjected by 

 man, and which are always, to some extent, contrary 

 to the natural mode of life of the creatures, we are 

 at present unable to say. We can, however, point 

 with some certainty to cases in which birds and 

 quadrupeds, which are made subservient to our needs 

 or our convenience, suffer in consequence of our 

 treatment. In some degree, this is true with regard 

 to bees. In a wild state their habitations may, 

 indeed, expose them to risks they do not run in 

 hives, but these artificial dwellings, on the other 

 hand, tend to the development, or the extension of, 

 at least two maladies to which their occupants are 

 subject. These are the deadly evils of dysentery 

 and so-called " foul-brood." 



Dysentery has been known in apiaries from the 

 time of Columella, in the first century of our era, 



K 



