56 o 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
again with perfect safety if, having been washed* and 
dried, it be scrupulously painted with a mixture of two 
parts methylated spirit and one part carbolic acid 
crystals, or one-and-a-half parts good white fluid 
carbolic acid. This mixture not only rapidly destroys 
all bacilli and spores, but it glues them down into 
place, by dissolving the propolis, and insinuating itself 
into every cranny. Other methods are at command, 
Mr. R. Sproule having contrived a disinfecting 
apparatus, which he finds perfectly efficacious ; by it 
he vaporises carbolic acid in steam, which is carried 
through the carpeting by a pipe. The processes of 
ovening, or prolonged boiling, will also, from what 
has been said on sterilising, disinfect the hives and 
frames. The oven of the kitchener will usually be 
large enough to receive the latter, and so can render 
them re-fit for use. I believe, for hives, the process 
of painting with my mixture, now recommended, will 
be found most generally useful ; but let none depend 
on a hope that the spores will die by simply leaving 
the hive empty for a season. I have just tried some 
of these spores kept sixteen-and-a-half months in 
a glass tube, and exposed on several occasions to 
a temperature below frost. Upon introduction into 
gelatinised meat-juice, they ‘ immediately started 
growing. 
The old German plan of giving salicylic acid t in 
food, and spraying with a solution of the same, 
* For the washing, the corrosive sublimate solution (page 558) may 
be used with advantage, but thorough rinsing must follow. 
t For further information, see the Address of the Author : “Foul Brood 
not Micrococcus, but Bacillus — the Means of its Propagation, and the 
Method of its Cure ” {British Bee yournal, Vol. XII., August 12, 1884). . 
