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did contain last year's honey that was still being used for a partial 
food supply by the bees. 
Briefly recapitulated, arsenic was found present in the contents of 
the abdomens of bees frequenting recently sprayed blossoms, and we 
are at least free to assume that more or less of it was contained in the 
honey sacs. The dead bees, three times washed in ammonia water, 
the latter not revealing the presence of arsenic externally, when tested 
showed its presence internally. Brood from uncapped cells (larvae) of 
a colony suddenly dying without other apparent cause gave evidence 
of having died from the effect of arsenic which could have been intro- 
duced only from without. 
In summing up the matter, then, 1 can see no other conclusion that 
can be drawn from the results of my experiments than that bees are 
liable to be poisoned by spraying the bloom of fruit trees, the liability 
increasing in proportion as the weather is favorable for the activity of 
the bees, and that all bloom must have fallen from the trees before the 
danger will have ceased. 
Finally, I believe we now have the first conclusive proof of the effect 
on bees by the use of arsenical poisons in the orchard while the trees 
are in bloom. Heretofore all has been uncertainty, the statements 
made being based on either pure assumption, or, as in once instance, 
on the result of penning up the bees and feeding them on poisoned 
sweetened water. It is certainly to the credit of the entomological 
fraternity of America that among their number but few could be found 
willing to risk a positive assertion based on such slender and unreliable 
information, and I feel that I am fully justified in pointing out the 
fact that in the case of two of our fellow members, Dr. Lintner and Mr. 
Fletcher, in the face of the legislative bodies of their respective States, 
both refused to commit themselves to the extent of making positive 
statements either one way or the other. 
Mr. Lintner said that his position hitherto had been that laws ought 
not to be passed on the subject unless it was amply proved that harm 
did result to bees ; and even in that event, the relative interests of 
the bee-keepers and fruit-growers should be carefully weighed, since it 
has been showed by him that many harmful insects also visited the 
blossoms, and they would stand an equal chance with the bees of being 
poisoned by the arsenical mixtures. 
Mr. Smith said that the bee-keepers would always have an advan- 
tage when it came to securing legislative action, because, while they 
represented a comparatively small number of individuals, they are 
well organized, and can secure action where the much larger body of 
fruit-growers would be powerless. 
Mr. South wick read the following paper : 
