40 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS ON APICULTURE. 
Just how the bacteria are carried from a dead larva to a healthy 
one we do not know. It is not uncommon, in examining the brood, to 
find only a portion of a larva in a cell, the bees having removed a 
part of it. When the body wall of a larva is broken in examining 
for foul brood, bees readily suck up the contents which flow out. 
This is true when the larva which is punctured is healthy, or when 
it is sick with disease, or after it has been dead a few days. The 
larvae at these stages of the disease contain a very large number of 
the disease-producing bacteria. These observations would indicate 
that in this way, in part at least, the infectious material might be 
carried to healthy larvae. Actual contact of the appendages of the 
bee with the foul-brood material, and the subsequent contact of the 
same appendages with the food of the larva?, may be a method by 
which the disease-producing bacteria are spread. We do know that 
in foul brood it is possible to obtain Bacillus larva? from the honey, 
and we do know that when bees are fed the spores of Bacillus larvm 
in honey American foul brood will appear in the apiary. 
The spores of this bacillus are very resistant to heat and other 
disinfectants. They resist the boiling temperature of water for 
fifteen minutes. In 5 per cent carbolic acid they were not killed in 
two months' time. This was demonstrated by obtaining growth in 
cultures after the spores had remained in this disinfectant for that 
length of time. Likewise it has been demonstrated that the spores 
of Bacillus larvm, when taken from the scales of American foul brood, 
resist the action of mercuric chloride (corrosive sublimate), 1:1,000 
aqueous solution, for two months. Having such facts before us, we 
can better judge the methods for treatment. 
In treating this disease we must bear in mind the preventive and 
curative measures. In the preventive treatment many of the condi- 
tions you can control; others may be difficult. You can at least be 
sure that you import no bees or used supplies which might have been 
in an infected apiary. Use no old combs and feed no honey of 
which you do not know the history. In this way the bacillus which 
causes the disease in a large measure can be kept out of the apiary. 
There are conditions which are difficult to control. Should a near-by 
apiary be diseased and some of the colonies become weak or die out, 
it might be difficult for you, in a dearth of nectar, to keep your bees 
from robbing the diseased apiary and in this way bringing these 
disease-producing germs to your healthy colonies. 
Some preliminary experiments have been made, but the results do 
not indicate that drugs, in the treatment of this disease, have the 
value advocated by some English writers. 
