24 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS OX APICULTURE. 
that their introduction is not recent. This evidence is not merely the 
result of bee keepers' reports or of more or less semiauthoritative and 
indefinite rumors, but it is based upon results of bacteriological find- 
ings in numerous samples of brood comb sent to this Bureau by the 
bee keepers in the State during the past year and a half. Under 
these conditions bee keeping can not be brought to the high degree of 
perfection which is possible. Xo factor in bee keeping tends to limit 
the industry as do epidemics of such diseases ; they cause bee keepers 
to become discouraged by "bad luck" and to lose interest in their 
bees. The " luck " must change ; the bee keepers must learn the 
nature of the diseases, where they exist, and how to combat them; 
otherwise the industry will decrease even more. 
THE TWO KNOWN BEE DISEASES. 
Two contagious brood diseases of bees are now known. These 
attack the developing brood and so reduce it that the colony soon 
dwindles from lack of young bees to replace the old. They are 
known, respectively, as American foul brood and European foul 
brood. 
AMERICAN FOUL BROOD. 
The cause of this disease is definitely known to be an organism, 
Bacillus larval White. It is what has been heretofore frequently 
designated simply as ;> foul brood." The nature of the disease is 
described by Dr. E. F. Phillips, in charge of apicultural investiga- 
tions in this Bureau, as follows : 
When the larvae are first affected they turn to a light chocolate color, and 
in the advanced stages of decay become darker, resembling roasted coffee in 
color. Usually the larva? are attacked at about the time of capping, and most 
of the cells containing infected larvae are capped. As decay proceeds these 
cappings become sunken and perforated, and, as the healthy brood emerges, the 
comb shows the scattered cells containing larvae which have died of disease, still 
capped. The most noticeable characteristic of this infection is the fact that 
when a small stick is inserted in a larva which has died of the disease, and 
slowly removed, the broken-down tissues adhere to it and will often stretch 
out for several inches before breaking. When the larva dries it forms a 
tightly adhering scale [of characteristic and diagnostic shape and] of very 
dark brown color, which can best be observed when the comb is held so that a 
bright light strikes the lower side wall [of the cell]. Decaying larvae which 
have died of this disease have a very characteristic odor which resembles a poor 
quality of glue. This disease seldom attacks drone or queen larva 3 . 
EUROPEAN FOUL BEOOD. 
This is the disease which appears to be most prevalent in Massa- 
chusetts, probably having swept in from Xew York State, where it 
a The brood diseases of bees. By E. F. Phillips. Ph. D. Circular 79, Bureau 
of Entomology, U. S. Department of Agriculture, pp. 1-2, 1906. 
