38 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS ON APICULTURE. 
TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 
The ultimate object in the investigation of diseases is the successful 
treatment of them. Before a disease can be treated rationally the 
diagnosis must be made ; in other words, it must be determined what 
disease is present. If, for example, the so-called " pickled brood " is 
present in an apiary, the treatment will be quite different from what 
it would be if American foul brood or European foul brood were 
present; and if no disease is present, as sometimes happens, and the 
bee keeper suspects a disease, it is important that a positive diagnosis 
be made of this condition. 
There is no method by which bee disease can be so positively diag- 
nosed as by the finding of the exciting cause in the affected and dead 
bees. This fact is made use of in diagnosing samples of brood sent to 
the laboratory and illustrates one important advantage in knowing 
the etiology of disease. If we are to devise methods for treatment it 
is important that we should know where the exciting cause exists, 
under what conditions it grows, how it is carried from one place to 
another, and how it may be destroyed. These facts are determined by 
a study of the etiology of the disease, and it is upon such facts that 
we should base the treatment. 
Those who are familiar with bee diseases are also familiar with 
the different methods of treatment. It is not the purpose of the 
writer to discuss any of the classical methods, but to suggest a few of 
the principles upon which such methods must be based if they are to 
be most effective. Treatment is both preventive and curative. 
PREVENTIVE TREATMENT. 
Too many believe that the treatment of bee diseases consists in the 
control or eradication of a disease after it is found in the apiary. 
This is only the minor part of treatment — the curative. The treat- 
ment which is of major importance is the preventive treatment. Pre- 
vention is much easier than cure. To prevent disease in the apiary 
is to keep it out. To keep it out is to keep out the exciting cause. In 
order to keep out the exciting cause, it is desirable to know its dis- 
tribution or where it is found. In American foul brood the exciting 
cause, Bacillus larvae^ is found in immense numbers in the bodies of 
diseased and dead larva?. These dead larva?, for the most part, are 
allowed by the bees to remain in the brood cell as a scale. The honey 
also has been demonstrated to contain the bacteria which produce this 
disease. The pollen may be contaminated with the spores of this 
disease-producing organism. The combs from an apiary affected 
with American foul brood are a fruitful source of infection. The 
inside of the hives which have contained colonies suffering with 
American foul brood may be contaminated with the germs which 
