80 HISTORICAL NOTES ON BEE DISEASES. 
its normal proportions. This distension, however, is not by any means constant, 
and was chiefly noticed in the case of the native bee; in the half-breed with the 
Italian bee, with its longer and slightly more slender shdomen no unusual distension 
could be observed. 
The disease appears to differ from what is usually termed ‘‘bee-paralysis,”’ in that 
the infected individuals do not exhibit the characteristic black and shiny appear- 
ance, and neither I myself, nor any bee keepers who have paid attention to the dis- 
ease, have observed the curious trembling motion of the limbs and body which is 
regarded as a symptom of that disease. 
The disease appears to be entirely confined to the adult bees, the brood remaining 
unaffected. I have conducted a microscopical examination of a large number of 
egos, larvee at all stages of development, and pupe, and have failed to detect any- 
thing of a pathological nature among the brood. All had the characteristic pearly 
white appearance of healthy specimens although belonging to a badly infected hive. 
The eggs were undergoing development and showed not the slightest trace of discol- 
oration or shriveling, the larve were healthy in every way and were coiled up in 
their normal attitude, and nothing wrong could be detected with the pupz or the 
newly hatched bees. 
In describing the “ Nature of the disease’? Imms writes in part as 
follows: 
The disease is eminently one of the digestive system and might be described as 
being a condition of enlargement of the hind intestine. Over 150 diseased bees 
have now been examined and all have been found to exhibit the same symptoms. 
The author states that the bacteriological work on the disease was 
in progress. The work which had already been done demonstrated 
the presence of a large number of bacterial rods. No conclusion was 
reached as to the cause of the disease, nor had any remedy been found 
in the treatment that was successful in the hands of all bee keepers. 
Some of the more important points in the paper might be summa- 
rized as follows: 
1. The disease, so far as was determined, was of recent origin. 
2: The Hacnils described seemed to be very rapidly fatal to adult 
bees. The brood seemed to be unaffected. 
3. To Imms the trouble seemed to be neither dysentery nor the 
so-called paralysis. 
4. No conclusion was reached as.to the cause of the disorder. 
5. No treatment was demonstrated to be successful. — 
WHITE, JULY 29, 1907. 
On July 29, 1907, there was issued a circular’ briefly describing 
some experiments which demonstrated for the first time the cause of 
American foul brood. Although spores had been observed in very 
large numbers in the larve dead of this disease, no satisfactory 
medium had yet been devised by which pure cultures could be 
obtained that were suitable for purposes of experimental inoculations. 
1 White, G. Franklin, July 29,1907. The cause of American foul brood. U. 8. Department of Agri- 
culture, Bureau of Entomology, Circular No. 94. Pp. 4, 
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