49 HISTORICAL NOTES ON BEE DISEASES. 
His reference to the gross appearance of the disease material with 
which he was working strongly suggests that the disorder was Amer- 
ican foul brood. In every case that he examined he reports the 
presence of Bacillus alvet. 
HowarbD, SEPTEMBER 10, 1896. 
Having gotten Howard’s conception of foul brood and Bacillus 
alver, we shall pass to another paper! by the same writer. 
The term “pickled brood,” which is often used by bee keepers, 
had its origin apparently in an article by Howard in which he reported 
a condition in the brood of bees as a new disease. Since the term 
‘“nickled brood’”’ is so frequently used in beekeeping literature it 
may be well to consider Howard’s work somewhat in detail. 
The trouble which he calls pickled brood he says had often been 
mentioned by writers in bee papers. Two years before his paper 
was written he himself had two colonies to die during the winter, and 
when in the spring the combs were examined they were found to be 
moldy, especially those containing pollen. These combs were given 
to other colonies with no bad results, until the brood which was being 
reared was about ready to be capped. By watching this brood he 
observed that it did not decay like ‘‘foul brood.’? When the larve 
are dead, he says, they have a swollen appearance, with neither end 
touching the cellasarule. After a few days some of the larve settle 
down and change to a dark brownish mass which is watery, not ropy, 
and without odor. 
From the combs and dead brood there was isolated a species of 
fungus to which he ascribed the cause of the trouble, and to which 
he gave the name Aspergillus pollini. Concerning his convictions as 
to the etiological relation existing between the fungus and the 
disease he writes: ‘‘Several experiments were made during the sum- 
mer which fully satisfied me that my conclusions were correct.” 
This condition suggested to Howard the possibility of its being the 
form of foul brood which responds to the shaking treatment and the 
drug method, and the form which disappears of itself when fresh 
pollen is consumed by the bees. He says that the fungus finds a 
good medium in food which contains pollen in the alimentary canal 
of the larve. The fungus, he says, breaks through the wall of the 
alimentary canal, permeates all the liquids of the body, and there 
produces acetic acid. The larva dies in about three days and is 
pickled in its own juices containing this acetic acid. Such a supposi- 
tion suggested to Howard ‘‘pickled brood” as a name for the disease. 
On account of the acid reaction of the larve thus ‘‘pickled,”’ he 
believed that no putrefactive germs entering from the air could grow 
1 Howard, Dr. Wm. R., September 10,1896. A new bee-disease—pickled brood or whitefungus. Ameri- 
can Bee Journal, vol. 36, No. 37, pp. 577-578. 

