78 HISTORICAL NOTES ON BEE DISEASES. 
(f) Bacillus alvei may appear in cultures made from the ovary of queens from Euro- 
pean foul-brood colonies, but the presence of this species suggests contamination from 
the body of the queen while the cultures are’ being made and has no special significance. 
(4) The disease which seems to be most widespread in the United States we have 
called American fou! brood, and the organism which has been found constantly present 
in the disease we have called Bacillus larve. This disorder was thought by many in 
this country and other countries as well to be the foul brood described by Cheshire 
and Cheyne, but such is not the case. 
(5) From the nature of American foul brood it is thought that the organism has a 
similar distribution to that of Bacillus alvei. 
(6) It appears that European foul brood was erroneously called ‘‘New York bee 
. disease”’ or “‘black brood” by Dr. William R. Howard in 1900. 
(7) There is a diseased condition affecting the brood of bees which is being called 
by the bee keepers ‘‘pickle brood.’’ No conclusion can be drawn from the investi- 
gation so far as to the cause of the disease. 
(8) Aspergillus pollinis, ascribed by Dr. William R. Howard as the cause of pickle 
brood, has not been found in this investigation and is not believed by the author to 
have any etiological relation to the so-called ‘‘pickle brood.”’ 
(9) Palsy or paralysis is a diseased condition of the adult bees. No conclusion can 
yet be drawn as to its cause. 
(10) Formaldehyde gas, as ordinarily used in the apiaries, is insufficient to insure 
complete disinfection. 
MAASSEN, FEBRUARY, 1907. 
In 1907 Maassen' reported on his work of the preceding year on 
foul brood. Samples were received from 100 apiaries. An exami- 
nation gave evidence of disease in 79 of them. Disease was not 
found in the other 21. ‘‘Spirochete apis’’ was reported in samples 
from 67 apiaries. Accompanying it B. brandenburgiensis was reported 
in 66 cases and B. alvei in one. JB. alvet was not found generally in 
the samples from Germany, occurring only in 11 of the cases. 
Among the 100 samples examined there were 2 in which was found 
a species in almost pure cultures which before had been found accom- 
panied by Bacillus alvei. This species Maassen named Streptococcus 
apis. He says that it belongs to the pneumococcus group, being dif- 
ferent from other members of the group by its marked peptonizing 
character. Upon a certain medium he reports that the species could 
be cultivated very easily. In 10 cases in which BS. alvei was found 
Streptococcus apis was reported in 8. No conclusive results were 
obtained in his attempts to demonstrate the relation between any of 
the organisms and the disease condition. 
In his report the following points of special interest are noted: 
1. Maassen did not express any suspicion that two distinct infectious 
diseases might be present in the condition he was studying as foul 
brood. : 
2. He reports the presence in samples from 67 apiaries of a micro- 
organism which he had previously named Spirochete apis, and with 
1 Maassen, Dr. Albert, February, 1907. Uber die sogenannte Faulbrut der Honigbienen. Mitteilungen 
aus der kaiserlichen biologischen Anstalt fiir Land- und Forstwirtschaft. Heft 4, pp. 51-53. 6 figs. 


