16 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
III.—The Connection of Nosema apis with Isle of Wight Disease in 
Hive Bees. Remarks on the evidence submitted in the 
Board of Agriculture Reports of 1912 and 1913. By John 
Anderson, M.A., B.Sc., Lecturer in Bee-keeping to the North of Scotland 
College of Agriculture. 
(Read 24th January 1916. MS. received 5th February 1916.) 
I. HISTORICAL AND INTRODUCTORY. 
ISLE OF WIGHT Bee Disease was reported from the island after which it is 
named in the year 1904, and it was at first stated that it did not appear on 
the mainland till 1909. It is now, however, believed that ‘the trouble 
was not unknown on the mainland prior to the Isle of Wight outbreak.” } 
It was in 1906 that bee-keepers became really alarmed, and Mr A. D. 
Imms, B.A., M.Sc., was requested by the Board of Agriculture to proceed 
to the Isle of Wight to investigate. He found the disease prevalent over 
practically the whole of the Island, and he collected much information from 
the bee-keepers as to the symptoms and course of the disease, the ways in 
which they believed that infection was conveyed, and the remedies they 
had experimented with. He dissected a number of bees, and made smears 
of the gut contents, fixing and searching these for bacteria. 
Imms’ description of the symptoms is as follows: “The earliest noticeable 
symptom of the disease is the inability of the affected bees to fly more than 
afew yards without alighting. As the disease progresses the bees can only 
fly a few feet from the hive, and then drop and crawl about aimlessly over 
the ground. They are often to be seen crawling up grass stems, or up the 
supports of the hive, where they remain until they fall back to the earth 
from sheer weakness, and soon afterwards die. In a badly infected stock 
great numbers of bees are to be seen crawling over the ground in front of 
the hive, frequently massed together in little clusters, while others remain 
on the alighting board. .. . Affected stocks examined in early spring show 
symptoms similar to those of dysentery. The bees discharge their excrement 
over the combs and on the sides, floor, and alighting board of the hive... . 
The bee-keepers state that this condition is only present after the winter 
confinement within the hive... . After the winter is over and the bees 
are all on the wing, no dysentery is noticeable, and all the diseased bees 
that have been dissected showed the opposite condition of distension of the 
gut. ... The colon and adjacent part of the rectum are enormously distended 
1 Board of Agriculture Report, 1912, p. 13. 
