PEE8ENT STATUS OF [NVESTIGATIOIS OF BEE DISEASES. 87 



yellow growth. All these characters show conclusively thai ii Is Identical 

 wiiii Bacillus alvei. There seems no doubt, therefore, thai the foul brood which 

 we bave In Ontario is the same disease and produced bj the same bacillus as In 

 other places. 



Many prominenl bee keepers, both bere and In tin- States, bowever, maintain 

 thai wherever unsanitary conditions are allowed to prevail, wherever chilled 

 brood is allowed to putrefy, or decapitated drones are left to deeaj In the 

 hive foul brood may arise de novo. This is no1 a now theory, either in bee 

 keeping or in medicine, bul unfortunately II Is n theory which is nol supported 

 by the results of Investigation. Diphtheria naturally will develop more readilj 

 If unsanitary conditions are present, bu1 it certainly will uol develop If the 

 Bacillus diphtherial is absent. The same is true of other diseases, and conse 

 quently when we come to consider such :i decidedly infectious disease as foul 

 brood and learn the facts aboul it which such men ns Cheshire bave told us we 

 naturally come to the same conclusion. If I were to maintain thai .1 Carnio- 

 lan queen might lay an egg which would develop into ;i bumble bee, bee men 

 would be inclined to think thai not only my hoc knowledge, bul also mj scien 

 titic knowledge, was at faull : bul vet in all the bee journals I find many promi 

 nent bee keepers maintaining that an ordinary microbe winch produces putre- 

 faction may become metamorphosed into the specific cause or foul brood, it 

 it is easy enough, however, to combal such an opinion upon a priori grounds, 

 hut nol quite so easy to offer convincing proof. 



In order to do this l thought it worth while to try some experiments. With 

 this end in view I obtained some comb containing chilled brood and endeavored 

 to isolate Bacillus alvei from it. but without success. 



There were plenty of other bacteria, but none which presented the well- 

 marked morphological characters peculiar to Bacillus alvei. Again I had senl 

 to the laboratory a piece of perfectly healthy comb. 1 killed the brood by chill- 

 ing. Then 1 infected some of the cells from a pure culture of Bacillus <ilr< i. 

 I allowed all the chilled brood to putrefy in a moist chamber for two weeks, at 

 the end of which time I obtained Bacillus alvei again from the cells which bad 

 been artificially infected, but could find no traces of it in the other cells. I 

 left this comb in a moist chamber for several months and again examined, but 

 with the same results. In the cells in which Bacillus alvei had been placed it 

 was still tii be found; in the others it was not present. 



It seems to me that an experiment such as the above conclusively shows thai 

 there is a distinct difference between foul brood and ordinary putrefaction. 



In considering the subject of the vitality of Bacillus <ilr< i the first question 

 which naturally arises is its power to resist heat. We know that bacilli which 

 produce spores and those which do no. stand in entirely different positions in 



this regard. The sporeless bacillus is destroyed at a much lower temperature 



than one which contains spores. Consequently in considering the question of 

 the vitality of Bacillus alvei, which produces spores very quickly and easily, we 

 may confine our attention entirely to the vitality of the spore. 



This is of special interest, as the question has been repeatedly raised whether 

 it is dangerous to use comb foundation made from foul-broody wax. Does the 



temperature to which the wax is raised in the manufacture of <• b foundation 



sufficiently destroy the vitality of the spore? Can the spore germinate and 

 infect the brood when once inclosed in the wax? 



These questions have been raised by many careful thinkers among bee men. 

 and certainly deserve attention. The second poinl oughl to he considered first, 

 since if surrounding a spore with a film of wax prevents j| S germination, we 

 need pay no further attention to the question of heat. The crucial test of this 



