64 HISTORICAL NOTES ON BEE DISEASES. 
Banre, 1904. 
A paper on the diseases of bees by Dr. L. Bahr,’ of Denmark, 
bears the date 1904. The author gives a brief review of the work 
on bee diseases, together with some interesting observations by him- 
self. In that portion of his paper describing his own observations 
the following is recorded: 
A number of samples of brood have been sent to me from various parts of the country 
(Denmark) having the following symptoms: Some of the diseased larvee were quite 
small, while some of them are older—irom 4 to 6 days. They never become ropy as 
those of foul brood, but retain their form until they approach the consistency of gruel. 
The color is whitish yellow but sometimes somewhat darker. In the gruel-like mass 
of the diseased larvee I found a very small oval bacterium. 
Bahr mentions that the disease seems to be quite contagious. 
From his description of the disease and from his bacteriological 
findings there is a strong suggestion that the disease to which he 
refers is European foul brood. Sufficient facts, however, are not 
given to make this point at all positive. The author states that his 
studies were not completed. 
Burr, OcToBER AND NOVEMBER, 1904. 
We shall now consider a very excellent piece of work on foul brood 
by Dr. Burri.2 In his introductory remarks this author very aptly 
refers to the need and value of a scientific study of foul brood. 
Burri began his work on foul brood apparently in the spring of 1903. 
He observed that the foul odor which is emphasized so much in the 
literature on ‘‘foul brood”’ is not constant for all samples. Studying 
the different samples he concluded that the ropiness of the decaying 
larvee and the tonguelike scales on the lower side wall of the cell were 
characteristic of typical “‘foul brood.” 
He also calls attention to the very large number of spores in the 
decayed foul-brood larve, and the absence of any vegetative forms. 
Cultures were made from these dead larval remains, but there was no 
germination of the numerous spores. The occasional colony which 
did appear he attributed to an accidental contamination with a 
different species. Failing in his attempt to obtain a growth of these 
numerous spores, Burri came to the conclusion that they were a new 
species that would not grow on the media ordinarily used in the 
laboratory. He added to his medium some cooked healthy larve 
somewhat similar to the medium used by Lambotte, but with this 
special medium he did not obtain the growth desired. Failing still 
to obtain a growth of the species, he proceeded with the study of its 
morphology as observed in the various stages of decay of the brood. 
Septbr. 1904. Saertryk af Tidsskrift for Biavl Nr. 16 og 17. 
2 Burri, Dr. R., Octoberand November,1904. Bakteriologische Forschungen tiber die Faulbrut. Schwei- 
zerische Bienenzeitung, Nro. 10, pp. 335-342; Nro. 11, pp. 360-365. 
