EXPERIMENT OF REAUMUR. 351 



it. It appears that Reaumur kept the bees of a particular 

 hive in a state of confinement, during which time he fed 

 them entirely on honey j the bees were attacked by the 

 dysentery, and the cause of the disease was attributed to 

 the food; wholly passing over the real one, which was 

 the confinement of the bees, and their consequent inability 

 to vent their excrement exteriorly to the hive. Nevertheless, 

 as the kind of food with which the bees were fed had been 

 declared by so great an authority as that of Reaumur to be 

 the cause of the disease, no further investigation was 

 deemed necessary; accordingly, the ruinous custom of con- 

 fining the bees was persevered in, and although the death of 

 a number of hives ensued, the food was said to be the sole 

 cause, and the consumption of bee bread by the bees came 

 in for its share of the blame, although no bee ever partook 

 of it as an article of food. 



Various remedies have been prescribed for this disease, 

 which is certainly curable, if taken at its commencement, 

 but if suffered to reach a particular height, all attempts at 

 a cure become useless. We have found the following com- 

 position to be highly efficacious at the first exhibition of the 

 disease, for it not only has a tendency to strengthen and 

 invigorate the bees, but acts as a laxative upon them, and 

 thereby forces them to void those noxious substances, which 

 have become corrupted in their bodies, and been the primary 

 cause of the disease. 



Take a quart of old wine, a pint of honey, and two pounds 

 and a half of moist sugar, with a small table spoonful of 

 salt; boil the whole gently over a slow fire, skimming it 

 frequently, until it be reduced to the consistency of a syrup. 

 It may then be put into jars, and kept in a warm place, 

 and used as the occasion may require. M. Martin, who 

 copied the above recipe from our " Cottager's Manual for 

 the Management of his Bees" and which he inserts in his 

 " Nouveau Manuel complet du Proprietaire des Abeilles" 

 Q 4 



