446 DISEASES OP BEES. 



Foul-Brood. 



786. There are other unimportant diseases, which have 

 not yet been studied, but all are nothing, when compared to 

 the dreadful contagious malady, already known thousands of 

 years ago* and commonly called foul-brood, because it 

 shows its effects mainly by the dying of the brood, but the 

 denomination is improper, for the brood is not alone dis- 

 eased. 



" When we remember that bees live in the closest contact 

 in very numerous colonies ; that their usual system of inter- 

 communication is by actual touch ; that they habitually pass food 

 from one stomach to another, while all the food they have has 

 been carried either within or upon the bodies of their fellows ; 

 that their very home is formed of one of their secretions, and 

 that their beds, cradles and larder are all interchangeable, we 

 shall admit that the circumstances are such as would appear to 

 favor the development of contagious diseases." — (Cheshire.) 



787. The scientific and indeed the true name of foul- 

 brood is baci'Ztet alvei, " small stick of bee-hives " because 

 it is composed of living organisms resembling small sticlfs. 

 It develops very rai^idly, and has been found, by Schonfeld 

 and by Cheshire, not only in the brood, but in the bees and 

 queens. The rapid depopulating of the colonies infested, 

 coupled with the fact that Mr. Bertrand has known several 

 queens to die in diseased colonies, leaves no doubt as to the 

 accuracy of the microscopical experiments made by Che- 

 shire, on queens who were found with bacilli, not only in 

 their organs, but also in the half developed eggs of their 

 ovaries. According to the English microscopists, there are 

 two kinds of bacilli alvei, the major and the minor, the 



-' As Aristotle (History of AnimalH, Book IX., Chap. 40) speaks of a disease 

 which is accompanied by a disgusting smell of the hive , there is reason to helievfl 

 that foul-brood was common more than two thousand years ago. 



t Bacillus, plural bacUli, from the Latin, a stick. 



