350 CAUSES OF THE DYSENTERY. 



bees when labouring under the dysentery are unable to 

 retain their excrement, the atmosphere of the hive becomes 

 consequently vitiated by the offensive odours issuing from 

 the excrement, the whole community are then living in an 

 infected air, and the malady spreads itself, until the bees 

 gradually dying off, the hive becomes wholly depopulated. 

 Another cause of the spreading of the disease is, that the 

 bees drop their excrement upon one another, defiling their 

 bodies, clotting their wings with a viscous, noxious matter, 

 impeding the organs of respiration, and thus gradually 

 reducing their number until the necessary temperature of 

 the hive can be no longer maintained ; a general weakness 

 seizes the whole community, and in the midst of this 

 calamity the queen perhaps falls a victim to the disease, 

 and the bees leave their infected hive as a prey to their 

 numerous enemies. 



A corrupted and "spurious food has been considered by 

 some apiarians as the cause of the dysentery, and by others 

 it has been attributed to the honey collected by the bees from 

 particular flowers and trees, amongst the latter of which are 

 classed the elm and the lime, than which nothing can be more 

 erroneous ; for in the first place, the flowers of the former 

 tree yield little or no honey, but an abundance of farina, 

 whilst the flowers of the latter are known to yield the bee 

 a rich and excellent harvest of honey; so much so, that 

 it is become almost proverbial: — 



" Where limes abound the bees in plenty live, 

 No better honey can a blossom give." 



An experiment tried by Reaumur has frequently been 

 quoted as confirmatory of a particular kind of food being 

 the cause of the dysentery, but in the general calculation of 

 the result of that experiment, the real cause of the malady 

 has been overlooked, and it has been attributed to one, 

 which it is most probable had not the slightest relation with 



