DISEASES AND ENEMIES. 
557 
combs without bringing their pulvilli (page 124, Vol. L), 
and the hairs of their bodies, into dangerous contact 
with them, and so the visits of robbers are likely 
enough to result in infection of the stock whence they 
came, while the honey w’ould, by its adhesiveness, aid 
in carrying away the terrible spores. 
A large number of observations has clearly shown 
that the disease, in the larva at least, is not one of 
the digestive tube, but of the blood, and, through it, 
of every viscus. If honey were the means of com- 
municating it, certainly traces of it would be found 
in the alimentary sac ; but here I find the bacillus 
only very occasionally. In the adult bee, however, 
although the disease fills the blood, it is still very 
prominent indeed in the chyle stomach. The nurses 
in the hive are, with little question, the main means 
of infecting the larvae ; travelling in the darkness, 
they become aware of the needs of the occupants of 
the brood-cells by constantly inserting their antennae, 
which must, where disease reigns, be brought into 
contact with bacilli. The transfer of these to the 
next grub fed will there start the disease. It is also 
extremely likely that spores are carried in the air, 
and taken in by the in-draught set up by the fanners. 
There will be no difficulty in this supposition when 
it is remembered that these organisms are so minute 
that a cubic inch of material would form a quad- 
ruple line of them from London to New York. 
Ordinary dust motes are, to such, huge by comparison ; 
so that the means by which they are disseminated 
must be altogether too varied. In the royal jelly of 
the queen pupa dead of bacillus, I could discover no 
