I30 THE HONEY-BEE. 



who attributed it to the effect of food derived by the 

 bees from the elm and the spurge. Other more 

 recent writers have ascribed it to over-indulgence in 

 spring-honey, wheresoever derived : others, again, to 

 the consumption of stores which had candied in the 

 cells during the winter. More recent investigations 

 show that there are several means by which this 

 trouble may be generated. In the first place, in- 

 effective ventilation, by permitting the condensation 

 of moisture on the combs, and its admixture with 

 the food stores, is a prolific source of the mischief 

 During the winter, the low temperature is constantly 

 reducing to a watery condition the aqueous vapour 

 given off by respiration. This vapour, like our own 

 perspiration, contains matter derived from impurities 

 in the circulating fluid, and is the natural vehicle for 

 their removal. If, then, such moisture again enters 

 the body of the bee, it is simply a poison, whose 

 effects become manifest by producing diarrhoea, 

 distension of the abdomen, and more or less speedy 

 death. 



Again, if the stocks be supplied in the late autumn 

 with syrup too watery for the bees to seal over in the 

 cells, contact with air sets up a chemical change, and 

 a certain amount of acid is generated, which makes 

 the honey most prejudicial to the health of the 

 stock, by deranging their digestive functions. 



Thirdly, if during the winter time, when the insects 

 are closely confined to their dwellings by the weather, 

 and when they are, under ordinary conditions, very 

 quiescent, they be disturbed and excited, they are apt 

 to gorge themselves with food ; and having no natu'ral 

 means of working off the extra quantity they have 



