90 
THE DIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 
dally in warm weather, to confine them, unless they have a 
very free admission of air ; and even then, unless it is ad- 
mitted above, as well as below the mass of bees, the ven- 
tilators may become clogged with dead bees, and the col- 
ony perish. Bees under close confinement become exces- 
sively heated, and their combs are often melted ; if damp- 
ness is added to the injurious influence of bad air, they 
become diseased ; and large numbers, if not the whole 
colony, may perish from dysentery. Is it not under pre- 
cisely such circumstances that cholera and dysentery prove 
most fatal to human beings ? the filthy, damp, and unven- 
tilated abodes of the abject poor, becoming perfect lazar- 
houses to their wretched inmates. 
I have several times examined the bees of new swarms 
which were brought to my Apiary, so closely confined, that 
they had died of suffocation. In each instance, their bodies 
were distended with a yellow and noisome substance, as 
though they had perished from dysentery. A few were 
still alive, and although the colony had been shut up only 
a few hours, the bodies of both the living and the dead 
were filled with this same disgusting fluid, instead of the 
honey they had when they swarmed. 
In a medical point of view, these facts are highly inter- 
esting ; showing as they do, under what circumstances, 
and how speedily, diseases may be produced resembling 
dysentery or cholera. 
In very hot weather, if thin hives are exposed to the 
sun’s direct rays, the bees are excessively annoyed by the 
intense heat, and have recourse to the most powerful ven- 
tilation, not merely to keep the air of the hive pure, but 
to lower its temperature. 
Bees, in such weather, often leave, almost in a body, 
the interior of the hive, and cluster on the outside, not 
merely to escape the close heat within, but to guard their 
