WHITE, NOVEMBER 6, 1906. (a4 
‘“‘Huropean foul brood” and ‘American foul brood” for two of the 
infectious diseases of the brood of bees is explained. 
The technique used by the writer of the bulletin in making the 
investigations is given in Part I. In this portion also is discussed 
somewhat the normal flora of the apiary. It was not the intention 
in making this study of the normal flora to give a complete list of the 
bacteria which might be encountered, but to study those species 
which occur most frequently, and to describe them with sufficient 
care to make their identification possible. 
The results of the study indicate that comparatively few bacteria 
are present in healthy colonies, on combs, in honey, in larve, or on 
adult bees. In the intestine of adult bees, however, there were 
usually found a very large number of individual bacteria, which, as a 
rule, however, represented comparatively few species. One species, 
an anaérobe, is of much interest since it occurs quite constantly and 
in very large numbers. It might be mentioned that the bees that 
did not show this intestinal flora were usually the younger adults. 
A number of fungi and yeasts were also encountered. 
The subject-matter in Part II, “The diseases of bees,” is not mate- 
rially unlike that which nppeered in earlier publications to which 
references have already been made. The author of the paper under 
consideration had reached no definite conclusion concerning the etio- 
logical relation of Bacillus alver to European foul brood, the disease 
in which this species is usually found in large numbers. That any 
direct causal relation did exist seemed questionable. 
In American foul brood, Bacillus larve was found in large numbers 
in the larvee dead of the disease in all the samples examined. Pure 
cultures of the organism had been obtained, but not in a suitable 
form for making inoculation experiments. The author of the paper 
did not feel justified in stating positively that Bacillus larvex is the 
cause of the disease. All that seemed justified was the statement 
that the organism had been found constantly present in the disease. 
The following brief summary was made of the results obtained 
from the study of the bee diseases: 
(1) There are a number of diseased conditions which affect the apiary. 
(2) The disease which seems to cause the most rapid loss to the apiarist is European 
foul brood, in which is found Bacillus alvei—first isolated, studied, and named by 
Cheshire and Cheyne in 1885. 
(3) The distribution of Bacillus alvei in the infected hive is as follows: 
(a) The greatest number of infecting germs are found in the Fodies of dead larve. 
(b) The pollen stored in the cells of ee foul-brood combs contains many of these 
infecting organisms. 
(c) The honey stored in brood combs infected with this disease has beea found to 
contain a few bacilli of this species. 
(d) The surface of combs, frames, and hives may be contaminated. 
(e) The wings, head, legs, thorax, abdomen, and intestinal contents of adult bees 
were found to be contaminated with Bacillus alvet. 
