14 HISTORICAL NOTES ON BEE DISEASES. 
brood or European foul brood. The other form of the disease, in 
which the brood was supposed to be placed with the head directed 
inward, most probably was not an infectious disease. In the treat- 
ment of foul brood Schirach recommends the removal of all combs 
from the bees. This principle is the one upgn which is based the 
methods which are most successful at the present time in the treat- 
ment of the infectious brood diseases. 
The other abnormalities in the colony which are mentioned in 
the paper relate to the condition of the queen. These are conditions 
familiar to the bee keeper, but which may occur more often when an 
infectious brood disease is present. Mention is also made of the fact 
that brood is sometimes killed by chilling. Schirach refers to this 
as an accident and not as a disease. 
LEuUCcKART, NOVEMBER 12, 1860. 
Leuckart ! had entertained the opinion that infectious foul brood 
was due to a fungus, and he felt that his view was strengthened by 
some work which was done on the diseases of the slkworm. During 
the summer of 1860, however, he had an opportunity to see much 
infectious foul brood in samples of comb and in colonies. In the 
diseased material he found no fungi that he couid not attribute to 
the phenomenon of decay. He states in the paper that foul brood 
is obviously a collective name that includes various forms of disease 
with the features in common of being epidemic, attacking early 
stages, and being usually fatal. One sample was examined, and a 
number of diseased and dead larve was found to contain an uniden- 
tified fungus. The majority of them, however, did not contain the 
fungus; yet these latter larve were thought to be dying of the usual 
type of foul brood. From his summers’ experiences Leuckart ar- 
rived at the conclusion that the infectious foul brood was not due to 
a fungus. 
Mo.uiroR—MUHLFELD, APRIL 15, 1868. 
Molitor-Mihlfeld ? in 1868 reported some startling observations 
relative to the cause of foul brood. He writes that foul brood is of 
two kinds, the mild kind and the so-called infectious or virulent one. 
The mild form of foul brood, according to his views, resulted from a 
chilling of the brood. During the early warm days of spring, he 
argues, brood rearing is stimulated to such an extent that when 
colder weather follows it is impossible for the bees to care for all the 
brood, and as a result the neglected brood is chilled, dies, and be- 
1 Leuckart, Dr., November 12, 1860. Zur Naturgeschichte der Bienen. 3. Zur Kenntniss der Faul- 
brut und der Pilzkrankheiten bei den Bienen. Eichstidt Bienenzeitung, 16 Jahrg., Nro. 20, pp. 232-233. 
2 Molitor-Miihlfeld, April 15, 1868. Die Faulbrut, ihre Entstehung, Fortpflanzung und Heilung. Eich- 
stadt Bienenzeitung, 24 Jahrg., Nro. 8, pp. 93-97, 
