lion. Th: 



il BUgge8tiO] 



the Infect* 



'd nurses pal 



:i chance 



to rid their 



removal t» 



i absolutely 



I must Si 



iy thai abs< 



PRESENT STATUS OF LNVESTIGATION OF BEE DISEASES. II 



>n was iii.it either starvation or < < >i 1 1 1 > building carried 

 it the period at which they ad as muses and gave them 

 intestines of the germ. If this is combined with a 

 ciran hives, with new foundation, it may succeed, but 

 ►lute cleanliness in this respect must be Insisted on. 

 As I said above, I bave not bad any opportunity of Investigating the result* 

 of these methods practically, and so can not speak with certainty. 



The fact of the presence of the bacilli In the workers and In the queen bears, 

 to a certain extent, upon this question. Cheshire and others make the state 

 nit-nt that the bacilli arc round in the intestines of the workers and In the 

 ovaries of the queens. My own experience confirms this. I bave found them 

 repeatedly In the workers, and in Ave queens from infected hives l succeeded 

 in obtaining the bacillus from the ovaries of three. That they are aot always 

 present in the ovaries of the queens from diseased colonies is certain; their 

 presence there is apparently accidental. For instance, in the case of one last 

 year's queens in a hive rather badly diseased I was unable to find the bacillus, 

 whilst in a six weeks' queen from a hive in which there were only a few dis- 

 eased cells I succeeded in finding it. 



Cheshire's statement that he found a bacillus in an egg of an Infected queen 

 seems to me to require confirmation. I have not been able to find the eggs in 

 fected myself. h\p it is a question winch would require very long and careful 

 Investigation before one could he able to deny or confirm such a statement. 



In the second method of treatment by medication 1 do not think that an 

 absolute destruction of the spores takes place, any more than in the starvation 

 method. As I have shown above, 2 per cent carbolic acid was not sufficiently 

 strong to destroy the spores, consequently it is not likely that 0.2 per cent t l 

 part in 500) would he strong enough. I tried 0.2 per cent, but found it quite 

 unsuccessful. Its action then must have another explanation. To test this 1 

 made up a sterilized beef broth containing 1 per odd of carholic acid, and in it 

 placed my infected silk threads. [ found thai there was no indication of 

 growth. These threads were then taken out and placed in ordinary sterilized 

 beef broth, and I obtained a luxuriant growth, i. e., the 0.2 per cent carbolic 

 acid in the culture fluid, although it did not destroy the spores, prevented their 

 germination That, then, is the explanation of the value of carbolated simp 

 in the treatment of foul brood, it prevents the germination of the spores. The 

 bee journals contain numerous examples of cases where carbolated sirup pro 

 duced an improvement, hut as soon as it was stopped there was a relapse, it 

 is evident that here again, as in the starvation process, there must he com- 

 bined an extremely thorough cleaning up. so that the besl possible results 

 may he obtained from the treatment. Medicated sirup does not destroj the 

 spores, it simply prevents their development and gives the bees a chance to 

 rid themselves of the infection, and in that respeel I certainly think resembles 

 the starvation process, its advantage over that is thai it can he carried on for 

 a longer time. 



In the course of these experiments I tried another substance which has been 

 much used since Lortet's work on tile subject, viz, beta aaphthol. I do aot 

 think myself, from recent work on this substance, that beta aaphthol should he 

 ranked very high as an antiseptic, mainly on accounl of its insolubility in 



water. I found, however, th.it ;i I i broth containing 1 per 1,000 beta napb 



thol would not allow spores of Bacillus alvei to germinate, and consequently 

 had an equal value with 1 pel 1 odd of carbolic acid. It has ;in advantage Over 



carholic acid on account of the disagreeable taste of the latter, and I think 

 would he more acceptable to the bees, 



