EUROPEAN FOULBROOD. oT 
Through the study of microtome sections of such larve, it has been 
conclusively proved that infection takes place in this way. The fact 
is naturally one of special moment in the solution of the transmission 
of the disease. There is a tendency on the part of adult bees to 
remove sick and dead larve from the brood comb. This is done 
largely at least in a piecemeal manner. Were the fate of the frag- 
ments removed known definitely the solution of the problem natu- 
rally would be aided greatly. 
If infective material thus removed were fed to susceptible 
healthy larvae, disease would result. On the other hand should the 
fragments of diseased larvee be stored with the honey of the hive 
or with the pollen, or consumed by the adult bees, or by larvee 
later in the feeding stage, the chances that such material would 
ever reach susceptible larvee to cause infection are very much re- 
duced. Stored in honey the virus remains virulent only’ a few 
months (p. 24); in pollen, however, it remains virulent much longer 
(p. 24). Drying within the hive Bacillus pluton would probably 
remain alive more than a year (p. 19). 
The chances that any portion of the infectious material of any 
given fragment, if it is removed entirely from the hive by the bees 
of the colony, and released from them, will be taken up by other 
bees and carried to healthy brood and cause infection are compara- 
tively shght. If thus removed and exposed to the direct rays of 
the sun, the virus will be destroyed within a few hours (p. 19); 
or if subjected to fermentative or putrefactive processes it will be 
destroyed in a few weeks (p. 23). If Bacillus pluton is present in 
honey extracted from diseased colonies it will be destroyed within 
a few months while in storage (p. 24). It is seen, therefore, that in 
nature there are many means that destroy the virus of European 
foulbrood and thus limit the spread of the disease. 
All of the colonies of the experimental apiary used in making the 
inoculations cited in the present paper had free access to the fields 
and there was no evidence at any time of the transmission of the 
disease from infected to healthy colonies. This fact supports the 
conclusion that the disease is not spread by way of flowers visited 
by bees from healthy colonies which had been visited previously by 
bees from diseased ones. The fact further indicates that if the dis- 
ease is transmitted at all by way of the water supply of the bees, it 
takes place to a limited extent only. The fact still further indicates 
that if drones or straying or drifting workers transmit European 
foulbrood they do so to a slight extent only. If these observations 
are at variance with the experience of the practical beekeepers, 
as the writer has been informed that they are, they will probably be 
of particular interest. 
