1909.] Disease of Bees in the Isle of Wight. 813 



have thought that the unusual prevalence of sea-fogs during 

 the last few years might account for the disease. In other 

 parts of the Island there has not, however, been any unusual 

 prevalence of fogs. 



(b) Many have urged that the disease might be due to 

 poisoning from artificial manures or materials used for spray- 

 ing, especially copper sulphate and Paris green. Careful 

 inquiry has shown, however, that no fresh compounds have 

 been made use of for several years, and that those in use 

 have not been employed in larger quantities than formerly. 

 In fact, very little spraying is done. Moreover, chemical 

 examination of the bodies of large numbers of diseased bees 

 has failed to show the presence of either arsenic or copper. 

 Further, in my own experience, bees from healthy brood 

 introduced into an infected hive have developed the disease. 



(c) Some have thought that the disease was due to starvation 

 through the bees being unable to get proper food owing to 

 the fact that clover is less grown than formerly. This 

 hypothesis was disproved by the examination of a large 

 number of hives in which the stock had died from the disease, 

 all of which contained ample stores of pollen and honey. 



(d) Some bee-keepers have suggested that certain plants 

 or shrubs may have developed properties poisonous to the 

 bees. Lucerne was especially blamed, but very little is now 

 grown, and certainly not more than a few years ago. More- 

 over, in some countries it is largly cultivated, and much 

 honey is obtained from it, but no such disease exists in these 

 countries. Furthermore, I have been unable to detect any 

 difference in the pollen grains derived from the alimentary 

 canals of diseased and healthy bees. In my own experiments 

 Italian bees developed from healthy brood, kept in confine- 

 ment and artificially fed without pollen, developed the disease. 



In this connection an experiment by Mr. H. M. Cooper 

 is of interest. He writes: "Five weeks ago I placed two 

 driven lots of bees on six combs, which I had procured from 

 Herts, containing a pollen, and commenced feeding on plain 

 syrup. In a few days they showed symptoms of the disease, 

 so I mixed an acid with the food. It did no good, and now 

 they are all dead. In that time they could not have gathered 

 much, if any, pollen, as the weather was bad." 



