i>RKSKNT sTATl's of INVESTIGATION OF BEE DISEASES. 28 



in a paper by Prof. F. C. Harrison, entitled " Foul Brood of Bees," 

 published as Bulletin L12 of the Ontario Agricultural College: 



in all probability the first definite reference to foul brood is by Aristotle 

 (Historia Animalium, Book IX. ch. 27), who mentions an Inertness which 

 seizes the bees and causes ;t bad smell in the bive. lie also suggests thai bees 



are liable to become diseased when the Mowers on which they work are 

 attacked by blight. Bee dysentery as well as foul brood causes a had odor; 

 inn in the former disease the spotting and consequent smell are usually outside 



I he hive. 



Columella (De Re Rustica, Book IX. ch. 13) mentions a bee pestilence and 

 .in annual distemper which seizes the heos iii spring. Pliny (Natural History, 



Book XI. ch. 1!». A. I). T'.M writes el' a disease of heos. mil as he uses the same 

 term as Aristotle he has probably copied it from the latter author. 



Schiracfa (Histoire des Abeilles, eh. III. p. 56, La Have. 1771 i. in 1769, was 

 the first writer to name the disease "foul brood." He says: 



It is dangerous and a most destructive' disorder to the hees. a genuine plague 

 when the complaint has reached a certain stage. The cause can he attributed 

 to two sources: (1) The putrid (or tainted i food with which the hoes feed 

 the larva- for lack of having hotter. (2) By the mistake of the queen bee in 

 misplacing the larvae in their cells, head upside down. In this position the 

 young bee, unable to get out of its prison, dies and rots away. 



Further, Schirach dearly distinguishes between foul brood and chilled brood, 

 and mentions the fact that putrefaction follows the death of the brood from 

 frost, lmt in this case " it is only an accident and not a disease." 



The remedy Schirach recommended was to remove all diseased comhs from 

 the infected hives and to keep the hees fasting' for two days, after which they 

 arc furnished with other cakes of wax and a suitable remedy given, "as a 

 little hot water mixed with honey, nutmeg, and saffron, or a syrup composed 

 Of equal parts of sugar and wine 1 seasoned with nutmeg." Thus, as Cowan 

 (Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society. Vol. VI, Part IV, 1895) remarks: 

 " We had given us nearly one hundred and thirty years ago a method of cure 

 almost identical with what is by some claimed as new to-day." 



Tessier (L'Encyclopedie Methodique, Abeille, p. 32, 1765) about the same 

 time as Schirach says that when the larwe die in their cells it causes an in 

 fectiou in the hive which makes the bees sick. It is then necessary to drive 

 away or sometimes move the hees from the hive, and to take care to fumigate 

 the infected hive if it is going to he used again. It is necessary, in order to 

 avoid the same inconvenience, to take out the parts of the eomh that may he 

 moulded by reason of the dampness. Duehet (Culture des Abeilles, p. 315, 

 Vevey, 1771), who wrote on hoes in 1771, does not mention any disease that 

 can he certified as foul brood, hnt he describes bee dysentery. 



Delia Rocca (Traite Complel sur l« i s Abeilles, Vol. III. p. 261, Paris. I7*.i<n. 

 vicaire-general of Syra. an island in the Levant, relates with much detail the 

 history of an epidemic of foul brood, which caused ureal destruction in Lhe 

 island during the years 1777 to 1780. Delia Rocca describes very minutely the 

 symptoms, destruction, and mistakes that were made in attempting to COmbal 

 I he disease. He says : 



The disease manifests its presence by defects in the comhs filled with brood, 

 and which only contain a putrid mass: instead of the bee pupa' there is only 

 rottenness in the cells, which, however, being capped, always preserve a healthy 

 appearance. If these cells are broken open, a blackish liquid flows out. which 

 spreads the infection through the hive. This disease only manifests itself 

 in cells which contain a nearly mature larva or a capped one. The hees them- 

 selves remain in good health, and work with the same activity, hut their 

 numbers decrease daily. This disease, however, was not so general in a hive 



