DISEASES OF BEES 19 



Comparison with other Diseases. — The disease is also called 

 " Black Robber Disease," from the appearance and behaviour of 

 the bees in certain cases. It may be the disease noted by Cheshire,, 

 who ascribed the cause to an organism he called Bacillus gaytoni. 

 Unfortunately he did not publish a detailed investigation of the 

 disease or the Bacillus. Certainly, abnormal numbers of bacteria 

 are often present in the alimentary canals of diseased bees and they 

 deserve study. Bee Paralysis resembles the diseases known as 

 May-Sickness, Paratyphoid, Septicaemia, Schwindsucht, Schwarz- 

 sucht. Bee Paralysis in America and intoxication and some other 

 diseases associated with fungus or yeasts in the alimentary canal. 

 It may be the Schwindsucht or Schwarzsucht of writers in German, 

 and it may be the Bee Paralysis of America, though Prof. Phillips, 

 on seeing a stock affected with the disease, said that it was not 

 American Bee Paralysis. The sjmiptoms suggest that the disease 

 is located in the alimentary canal and that later paralysis of the 

 nervous system sets in. 



Inclusion Bodies. — -The diagnostic characters of Bee Paralysis 

 are not very satisfactory since they are shared by many other 

 diseases. What one wants is a character peculiar to the disease — 

 as for instance the presence of Nosema in the alimentary canal 

 indicating Nosema infestation. As far as I am aware, no microscopic 

 character diagnostic of the disease has hitherto been found. I now 

 think that I have found such a character. It exists in the form 

 of minute spherical or ellipsoidal bodies which I call " inclusion 

 bodies," inside the cells of the anterior end of the small intestine.* 

 The bodies measure 1-6 microns in diameter, the largest bodies 

 occurring in the cells of the small intestine just behind the openings 

 of the Malpighian tubes and they become smaller the further back 

 they lie till they disappear at about the end of the first quarter 

 of the small intestine. Large numbers are grouped together in each 

 cell. They lie most abundantly between the nucleus and the inner 

 wall of the cell. I have found these bodies in all bees that I con- 

 sidered afflicted with Bee Paralysis and not in bees suffering from 

 other diseases, nor in healthy bees of different ages or at different 

 stages of activity. They are not described by writers on the histlolgy 

 and cytology of the alimentary canal of healthy bees. 



What are these bodies ? I suggest that they may be " inclusion 

 bodies " like those found in animals and plants suffering from 

 certain virus diseases. If the suggestion is correct. Bee Paralysis, 

 is a virus disease, which may be diagnosed by these bodies in the 

 cells of the fore end of the small intestine. Since the bodies do not 

 occur in healthy bees they are not likely to be metabolic products 

 of a norma] bee. They do not appear in the cavity of the small 

 intestine or in the rectum amongst the faeces or in the blood. On 

 the whole, I think that the evidence is against their being bacteria, 

 fungi or yeasts. 



*Figj 1 and 2. 



