DISEASES AND ENEMIES. 
547 
This theory was fully borne out by examination. 
Snipping off the end of the tongues of bees from 
diseased stocks, and then squeezing them so as to 
express blood, gave material which was found laden 
with bacilli, in most cases. Bees, however, if far 
gone, are almost bloodless, while the air-sacs, ex- 
panding as muscle vanishes, seem to fill nearly the 
whole interior cavity. This discovery was pregnant 
with consequences, and bee-dealers and others who, 
in ignorance of the facts, had always proclaimed that 
swarms were incapable of being affected by it, and 
that queens could never communicate it, had now to 
be told that this error had, in all probability, been no 
small part of the reason why foul brood had grown to 
a veritable pest. 
Continuing the investigation, I proved that a large 
proportion of imago workers and drones die of this 
disease if they are raised in infected stocks, and that 
this explained the dwindling in numbers in any colony 
from the commencement of the attack. But, further, if 
workers and drones were liable, why might not queens 
be so likewise ? and if this be possible, might we not 
get a solution of certain peculiarities with which bee- 
keepers of experience are familiar. E.g.^ some months 
earlier I had imported a few queens from Italy, one of 
which had been inserted into a stock, which quickly 
after developed foul brood, while the queen lived only 
six or seven weeks. In addition, if the queen might be 
infected, why not the egg? In the case of pebrine, 
this had already been proved to be the case. The 
bee’s egg is, to the size of the bacillus, enormous. 
Its length of diameter would enable 
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