38 HISTORICAL NOTES ON BEE DISEASES. 
expressed his convictions that there was but little doubt that pollen 
is the medium by which the contagion is most commonly introduced, 
most rapidly spread, and most persistently perpetuated. 
McLain also includes in his report some remarks on starved brood, 
and in referring to the symptoms states that in this condition the 
brood is frequently found to be only partially capped, giving the 
appearance commonly designated by the term “‘baldheaded brood.” 
In estimating the value of this work by McLain, it must be borne 
in mind that McLain had evidently a very indefinite conception of 
the phenomena which are encountered and must be dealt with in the 
study of disease; that he devoted but little time to the study of the 
disease he referred to as foul brood, and that he was probably unduly 
influenced by the writings of Cheshire. For these reasons it is 
advised that his reports be not taken too seriously. 
LortTEeT, FEBRUARY, 1890. 
A paper! by Dr. Lortet concerning some of the bacteria encoun- 
tered in the study of foul brood appeared in 1890. He found two 
species always present in the digestive tract of healthy adult bees as 
well as in those diseased. ‘These species were reported to be present 
also in the digestive tract of both healthy and diseased brood. The 
fact was pointed out that these bacteria had probably led some authors 
into error in their work. The two species were not named nor suf- 
ficiently described to make their identification possible. He en- 
countered also, in the digestive tube of brood diseased and dead of 
foul brood, another species which he supposed was Bacillus alver and 
which was the cause of the rapid death of the larvee. Lortet records 
no difficulty in cultivating this species on the ordinary media. 
It was his belief that adult bees suffered from the disease, but that 
they resisted the infection more than the larve, and finally died as a 
result of the infection. Experimentally, he claims to have obtained 
positive results in support of his views. He examined one queen 
taken from an infected colony and from a study of her he veported 
that she was perfectly healthy and that her eggs were free from 
bacteria. It was his opinion that food was the source of infection of 
the digestive tube of the nurse bees and that the nurse bees became in 
turn the source of infection for the brood. 
From his work he drew the following three conclusions: (1) That 
Cheshire had found the true exciting cause of foul brood and declared 
that the fact had been verified by numerous laboratory experiments; 
(2) that it is useless to attempt to save larve already infected, and 
(3) that adult bees which become infected may live a long time, and 
some may even resist the attack completely. 
1 Lortet, Dr., February, 1890. La bacterie loqueuse. Traitement de la loque par lenaphtols. Revue 
Internationale d’Apiculture, Tome XII, No. 2, pp. 50-54. 
