556 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
touched the brood. The honey, we have been told, 
abounded with micrococci, whereas none are to be 
found in it ; while I have searched most carefully in 
honey in contiguity with cells holding dead larvae, 
have examined samples from stocks dying out with 
rottenness, inspected extracted honey from terribly 
diseased colonies, and yet in no instance have I found 
an active bacillus, and never have been able to be sure 
of discovering one in the spore condition ; although it 
must be admitted that the problem has its microscopic 
difficulties, because the stains used to make the bacilli 
apparent attach themselves very strongly to all pollen 
grains, and parts thereof, and somewhat interfere with 
examination. I have now discovered that it is im- 
possible for bacilli to multiply in honey, because they 
cannot grow in any fluid having an acid reaction. I 
have prepared tubes of gelatinised meat-juice, omit- 
ting to make them alkaline. The bacilli will remain 
in such for months without sprouting. If, now, a 
fraction of a drop of ammonia be placed on the 
surface of the gelatine, the ammonia will gradually 
transfuse into the gelatine, and impart the necessary 
alkalinity. Immediately the dormant bacilli com- 
mence to grow, and form colonies. Such minute 
bodies as bacilli, produced in inconceivable numbers 
in the hive — a dead larva containing frequently 
1,000,000,000 spores — must occur in honey as an 
occasional contamination ; but the idea that they grow 
in the honey is quite contrary to all evidence. Of 
course, since the manipulator can scarcely visit a 
diseased stock without getting numbers of the bacilli 
upon his fingers, the bees cannot perambulate the 
