DISEASES AND ENEMIES. 
575 
opened many times without contamination. I have 
one still pure, over a year old, from which six dozen 
inoculations at least have been made. Would this be 
possible if one bacterium could be found, on an 
average, in each cubic inch ? The actual average 
is one in about 650 cubic inches for the open ; in 
thronged rooms it is much greater, the highest 
record, up to date, occurring during a soiree of the 
Royal Society, when, of course, the air was laden 
with foreign matter of every kind. Here Frankland 
found two bacteria in three cubic inches of air. Per- 
sonally, I could have afforded to have allowed this 
criticism to pass, as I have done many others ; but 
it would have been a failure in duty to have left 
it unrefuted — to hinder the spread of light upon a 
question of vast importance to the future of apicul- 
ture. Had the courtesy been reciprocated which I 
extended to the writer of the article in question 
when, at his visit to learn my methods, I presented 
him with a good number of my best preparations, 
I could have replied in another place. My trust is, 
that the presence of pathogenic organisms amongst 
our stocks will be regarded as a grave — an in- 
creasingly grave — matter, calling for the best efforts 
of everyone ; for, unless the diseased stocks are 
either cured or destroyed, the mischief they work 
grows as bee-keepers multiply, and that in the ratio 
of the square of their multiplication. 
The enemies of the bee found amongst the animal 
world are many, but their power for evil is as nothing 
beside the vegetable foes we have been considering — 
and so we may dismiss them quickly. Wax moths, 
