24 MEETING OF inspectors OF APIARIES. 



but ili.n a small portion escaped. Some new bees emerged but in too small 

 numbers to supply the dailj losses. Thus a hive attacked by this scourge will 

 perisb from scarcity <>f population. A1 first it was not noticed that this disease 

 was epidemic, and the bives emptied by death of the bees were idled with fresh 

 swarms, and these contracted the same disease and perished. Yet another 

 mistake was made. The remains of the hives that were lost were taken into the 

 streets of the town to expose them to the sun in order to extract all the wax. 



and the bees from the neighborhood sucked tip the honey, caught the disease, 

 and communicated it to other hives, and all. without exception, perished in a 



short ti The epidemic having readied the island spread everywhere, and 



the mortality among the bees was general, either from eating infected honey, or 

 from stopping up the infected combs, or from the bees nourishing their brood 

 on infected honey. 



Delia Rocca criticises Schirach's statement regarding the misplacement of 

 Mm- lar\.-e by the queen as a cause of the disease, because "everybody knows 

 thai the queen has nothing else to do hut deposit eggs. These are then cared 

 for and nourished by the bees; and when the larva is nearly ready to change 

 into the pupa, the bees close the cell, and every position which is given the larva 

 depends on their good pleasure and not on the queen's." Delia Rocca himself 

 thinks that "some pestilential blight had without doubt corrupted the quality 

 of the honey and the dust from the anthers." and recommends "burning every- 

 thing without pity, as there is no other resource when the disease is well 

 established, as the pest is without doubt the most terrible in the natural history 

 of bees." 



Neither Wildman (Treatise on the Management of Bees, London. 1796), Keys 

 (Ancient Beemasters Farewell. London, 1790. Woolridge), Needham (Brussels 

 Memoirs. Vol. II. 1780, Rhein), Reaumur (Memoirs pour Servir a l'Histoire 

 Naturelle des Insectes, T. V.. p. 1734), and other authors about the same time 

 i latter end of the eighteenth century) mention this disease. 



Bevan (The Honey Bee, London, 1827) names the disease "pestilence." and 

 also quotes Schirach's name, "foul brood." and says regarding it that the 

 "pestilence has been attributed to the residence of dead larvae in the cells, 

 from a careless deposition of ova by the queen. * * * It has also been 

 attributed to cold and bad nursing; that is. feeding with unwholesome food." 



Nothing further of note appears in bee literature till the year 1860, when 

 Doctor Leuckhart (Bienen Zeitung, Eichstadt, ls<;o. p. 232) writes that he was 

 formerly of the opinion that foul brood was caused by the same fungus 

 {Panhistopliyton ovatum) which is noticed in a disease of the silkworm, but 

 now, after observation and experiment, is quite certain that the disease id- 

 ealised by neither vegetable nor animal parasite. He also notes that the term 

 •• foul brood" is applied to a number of diseases affecting bees. 



Molitor Muhlfeld (Bienen Zeitung, Eichstadt. 1868, p. 95) recognizes two 

 forms, one contagious and the other not contagious, and thinks that the only 

 cause of contagious foul brood is a fly (Ichneumon opium melliftcarium) which 



lays its eggs on the young larva* of the bee. 



A discovery of note was Preuss's (Bienen Zeitung, 1868, p. 225), in 1868. He 

 contradicts Muhlfeld's statement about the fly, and states that foul-brood cells 

 can lie detected by the sunken cap. With a microscope magnifying 600 diam- 

 eters he found small, dust-like bodies, with a diameter of - J^ mm., belonging to 

 the genus Cryptococcus (Kutzig), ami called the specific form alvearis, likened 

 it to the fermentation fungus {Cryptococcus fermentum), and thought that the 

 las! germ gained access to the young bee and changed to Cryptococcus alvearis. 

 lb' notices that many experts lay the cause of the disease to fermenting fo d, 

 but the larvae are easily contaminated by the fermentation fungus, which is 

 always present in the air. He also uieutipns the enormous rapidity w ith which 



