DISEASES OF BEES. 445 
CHAPTER XVIIL 
Diseases or BEEs. 
784. Bees are subject to but few diseases that deserve 
special notice. We have said (626) that we consider diar- 
rhea as the result of an accumulation of faces only, but 
Mr. Cheshire has examined some of the fwces of diarrhea, 
and found in some of them living organisms, which indicate 
that, sometimes, the distension of the abdomen is not 
caused by the overloading of the intestines alone. These 
organisms, when better known, will probably explain some 
of the losses of bees, after Winter, and the Spring dwin- 
dling (659), which reduces so many colonies. 
785. We have said also (665), that those bees, who 
are in the habit of robbing, assume a smooth, black ap- 
pearance. Mr. Cheshire thinks that this explanation of 
glossy black bees is inaccurate, and claims that an examin- 
ation of such bees has shown, in them, the presence of 
living organisms, which he named bacilli gaytoni, after 
Miss Gayton, who found some of her colonies suffering from 
this disease, for three years in succession. ‘These organ- 
isms have since received, in England, the name of bacilli 
depilis. This last term means hairless, the bees affected 
with the disease losing all, or nearly all, their hair. We do 
not question the accuracy of the examination of these shiny, 
hairless bees, but we know that bees who are habitual 
robbers lose their hair, and assume this slick, shiny appear- 
ance, without suffering any disease; for they belong to 
healthy colonies, and are only a small exception among 
other bees. 
