MACKENZIE, DECEMBER, 1892. 39 
Believing that the digestive tract of the adult bee was the source 
of infection for the larve, he recommended, as the most rational 
treatment, the use of an intestinal antiseptic in the form of sirup 
medicated with beta naphthol, a drug which had been used for some 
time as an intestinal antiseptic in the practice of human medicine. 
The feeding of sirup medicated with beta naphthol (one-third gram 
beta naphthol to 1,000 grams of sirup), he reports, was sufficient in his 
experiment to free the intestinal tube of the bacteria causing the 
trouble. This cure he supposed took place rapidly and completely 
except when the bacteria had reached more completely the different 
portions of the alimentary tract. 
One observes that the views entertained by Lortet on bee diseases 
are quite different from those entertained at the present day con- 
cerning these disorders. 
MacKENzIE, DECEMBER, 1892. 
In 1892 Mackenzie read a paper! on Bacillus alver which he had 
prepared at the request of the Bee Keepers’ Union of Canada. The 
relation which was supposed by Mackenzie to exist between foul 
brood and Bacillus alvei is shown in the following brief review of his 
paper: 
He received from a bee keeper some samples of diseased brood for 
examination. He began the study of these samples upon the assump- 
tion that Cheshire and Cheyne had already found Bacillus alvei and 
by inoculation with pure cultures had demonstrated this organism to 
be the cause of the disorder. By finding an organism which he 
thought from its morphology and cultural characters was Bacillus 
alver, the conclusion was reached that the samples were foul brood, 
the same as was found in other places. 
Laboring under the erroneous conception that Bacillus alvei is the 
cause of the foul brood prevalent in Ontario, Mackenzie proceeded 
with the study of the bacillus identified by him as Bacillus alvei. 
‘The first task mentioned in his paper which was undertaken by him 
was the solution of the question whether in the making of wax foun- 
dation sufficient heat is applied to destroy the vitality of the foul- 
brood spores. After receiving replies from different foundation manu- 
facturers concerning the highest temperature reached in the process 
and the time the wax was kept at this temperature, and after mak- 
ing some determinations of the thermal death point of the spores of 
the bacillus, he writes: ‘‘I am inclined to think there is little danger 
from foul brood in that direction.’”?’ He found by a cultural method 
1 Mackenzie, J. J., B. A., December, 1892. The foul brood bacillus (B. alvei); its vitality and develop- 
ment. Eighteenth Annual Report of the Ontario Agricultural College and Experimental Farm, pp. 
267-273. 
This address is quoted in full in the Report of the Meeting of Inspectors of Apiaries, San Antonio, Tex., 
Nov. 12,1906. (Bulletin No. 70, Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1907, pp. 36-42.) 
