JANUARY". 431 



the comparison between the odour of a diseased hive and 

 that of a healthy one ; the former partaking strongly of the 

 smell of putrefied objects, the latter resembling the smell 

 of heated wax, partaking at the same time of the fragrance 

 of honey. If some blackish spots, resembling small linseed, 

 be perceptible on the stool in a state of desiccation, it may 

 then be considered as certain that the bees are in an un- 

 wholesome state. No time should then be lost in adminis- 

 tering to them some food, in which an extra quantity of 

 salt has been mixed, with a glass of port wine ; but should 

 that not be within the reach of the bee-master, some diluted 

 brandy will be equally efficacious. 



This malady of the bees arises frequently from the honey 

 being deposited in old and imperfect combs, which, turning 

 acid, occasions that disorder in the digestive organs which 

 ends at last in the dysentery. Another cause is the old 

 and musty bee-bread, which is the usual concomitant of 

 old combs. Nature has indeed wisely taught the bee to 

 provide against the bad effects of putrid bee-bread, by the 

 particular art which it displays in filling a cell, one half with 

 bee-bread, and the other half with honey, thereby in some 

 degree providing against the admission of air to the bee- 

 bread ; but the honey itself becomes in time contaminated 

 by the deleterious nature of the bee-bread, which has been 

 kept for a long time in the cells, and unless due vigilance be 

 used on the part of the apiarian, the destruction of his hives 

 will be the consequence. It is very difficult to prescribe any 

 method by which the infected combs can be removed from 

 the common hive; for how is a person not over -skilled in 

 the operative departments of the science, or perhaps not 

 skilled at all, to penetrate to the top of a common hive, for 

 the purpose of divesting it of a piece of infected comb ? how 

 is he indeed able to ascertain in what particular part of the 

 hive the infected combs are actually to be found ? and, per- 

 haps, after having cut out one comb, he may find himself 



