62 | HISTORICAL NOTES ON BEE DISEASES. 
bees. In the feeding experiments of this year some of the brood 
died. This slight difference in the results, from those obtained the 
preceding year, was probably due to the difference in the details of 
the experiment. Although some of the brood was found dead, the 
condition did not present sufficient symptoms, in the opinion of the 
author, to justify him in pronouncing it foul brood. Many punctured 
cappings were observed and dead larvee of a dull color were present. 
These dead larve were found by cultures to contain Bacillus alvei. 
The death of these larvee might have resulted from chilling or other 
causes, and the cappings may be punctured by the bees in different 
conditions that result in the death of the brood after capping. 
The presence of Bacillus alvei could easily be explained from the 
’ fact that cultures can be isolated from apparently healthy larve 
taken from a colony to which the spores of the species has been fed. 
There was also wanting in these dead larve the yellowish color 
usually observed in those affected with European foul brood. The 
slightly viscid character which is sometimes present in brood dead of 
European foul brood was also absent. ‘The rapidity with which the 
condition disappeared when the days became warmer was another 
indication that the disease was not European foul brood. The 
results of the experimental inoculation of healthy brood with cultures 
of Bacillus alver were negative, and were therefore similar in this 
respect to those of the preceding year. 
Since a number of articles had appeared about that time advo- 
cating the use of formaldehyde gas in foul-brood treatment, some 
preliminary experiments were conducted to test the efficiency of 
this disinfectant when applied to brood combs. The experiments 
demonstrated that it is not easy to destroy the spores which are 
within the dead larve and that the gas as it was being applied in the 
treatment of the brood diseases could not be relied upon. 
The samples of American foul brood which were received for 
examination in 1902 were labeled ‘‘foul brood” when received. 
From the time Cheshire and Cheyne published their joint paper in 
1885 to 1902 Bacillus alver was suspected as being the cause of ‘‘foul 
brood.” Bacillus alver, however, was not encountered in the samples 
labeled “foul brood” received and studied in 1902 (p. 60). Spores 
were found present in the decaying remains of the dead brood, but 
they refused to germinate on artificial media. 
The first time that these spores were caused to germinate under 
laboratory conditions was in 1903. For this purpose a special agar 
medium was used, made from the larve of bees. A somewhat similar 
medium had been used by Lambotte (p. 55), but with it he did not 
obtain a germination of these spores. This special agar was used 
in a test tube, and Liborius’s method for making inoculations was 
