354 REMEDY OF KEYS. 



Abeilles" in 1583, strongly recommends a decoction of sweet 

 herbs, in which the root of the leek is to predominate. 

 Moris. Gil informs us, that if the bees can be brought to 

 partake of this liquid, the cure is certain. 



Mr. Duchet in his treatise on bees asserts that the 

 dysentery generally proceeds from a deficiency of food, 

 and particularly in the spring when there is no honey 

 in the fields, and the bees are reduced to the necessity of 

 eating the farina of plants, and drinking snow water. 

 Duchet was in many instances a very excellent practical 

 apiarian, but he must have known that no necessity 

 whatever can induce the bees to partake of the farina 

 of plants as their food, and secondly, that the drinking of 

 snow water is certainly a very possible contingency, but not 

 a very probable one. 



According to the suggestion of Mr. Keys, the diseased 

 hives should be taken as soon as discovered into a warm 

 room, and the parts of the combs which are black and 

 mouldy cut away. The recommendation of this plan is one 

 thing, the execution of it another. If the bees be in the 

 common straw hive, the extraction of the mouldy combs is 

 a task, that few would be inclined to undertake, and still 

 fewer would be able to accomplish ; nor can we conceive 

 what possible effect the operation of cutting out a few musty 

 combs can have upon the stoppage or cure of an internal 

 malady. Keys, however, is in general so very deficient in 

 his general knowledge of the natural history of the bee, that 

 it is by no means surprising that he commits an error in 

 prescribing a remedy for a disease, of the nature of which he 

 is wholly ignorant. 



L'Abbe Bien-Aime, in his memoir on bees, recommends 

 oatmeal to be given to the bees, the efficacy of which we 

 consider to be as great as oysters to a horse for the glanders. 

 Had the worthy Abbe been born north of the Tweed, our 

 surprise at the recommendation of the oatmeal might not 



