grow rapidly and very soon touch the angles on either side of the cell. The little inmates literally float in this milky fluid. Very soon their couch becomes too short to stretch themselves upon. They then assume a bent or semicircular position. The degrees of these circular segments increases until both ends meet. When there is no further room to coil they stretch themselves along the sides of the cell and parallel to it.

When the larval transformation is nearly completed the organs of locomotion commence developing, first the legs followed by the wings, and so on; this is the beginning of the chrysalis stage. The nurse-bees now begin the work of enclosing the inmates by sealing them in with a brownish mixture composed of wax and pollen, or bee-bread, the same kind of material as the larger cappings of the drones and the cell of the queen-bee is formed with. Under the miscroscope these cappings are seen to be full of small holes, which freely admit the warm air from the clustering bees to be utilised by the two spiracles in the thorax of the maturing inmate, the ten in the abdomen remaining inactive during the final stage of this transformation.

During the second stage of transformation the larvæ frequently moult or change their skin; this occurs five or six times during growth. After the final moult they are fed for about four days. The inmate is now supplied with no more food, and the work of cocoon-spinning begins as soon as the capping of the cells is completed. The silken threads composing the cocoon are produced from a fluid yielded by a gland, and the work of its construction is exactly similar to that of the silkworm and other cocoon-building insects. Indeed, the bee cocoon may be described as made of bee-silk. The fluid escapes from spinerets in the lips of the larvae, and after its extrusion quickly hardens and becomes fibrous. On the completion of the capping, all further attention from the nurse-bees ceases. The construction of the cocoon occupies about thirty-six hours. While the final development of the chrysalis stages are completing they remain motionless until the twenty-first day is reached, when they emerge from the cell to commence the duty of perpetuating their race, having all the material instincts of the mother bee without the sexual appetite and the power of parturition. The love of offspring, and the perpetuating of her race in the queen, is seen in only one sexual intercourse with the drone-bee during her lifetime, and her inborn desire for egg-laying. Further than that, the queen is one of the most unconcerned onlookers in the hive, as it regards the rearing of the family that is developing from the very eggs she has laid. Not so with the workers. Their one thought is the protection and nurture of the helpless young; an incessant, laborious, patient, and life-long toil; a life cut short by premature death when the family is most numerous; not a death from a ripe old age, but a life worn out by industrious labour, in what should be the spring time of energy.

-The first duty devolving on working bees on entering into active life is the care of her brothers and sisters during their infantile life; a solicitude for their welfare; their cleanliness, their health, always anticipating their every want. Huber was the discoverer of nurse-bees. He speaks of two kinds of workers. One of these is, he says "In general destined for the elaboration of wax, and its size is considerably enlarged when full of honey; the other immediately gives what it has collected to its companions; its abdomen undergoes no sensible change, or it retains only the honey necessary for its own subsistence. The particular function of the bees of this kind is to take care of the young, for they are not charged with provisioning the hive. In opposition to the wax-workers, we shall call them small bees, or nurses. Although the external difference be inconsiderable this is not an

D

imaginary distinction. Anatomical observations prove that the stomach is not the same; experiments have ascertained that one of the species cannot fulfil all the functions shared among the workers of a hive. We painted those of each class with different colours, in order to study their proceedings; and these were not interchanged. In another experiment, after supplying a hive (deprived of a queen) with brood and pollen, we saw the small bees quickly occupied in nutrition of the larva, while those of the wax-working class neglected them. Small bees also produce wax, but in a very inferior quantity to what is elaborated by the real wax-workers."

There was never a more careful observer of scientific bee life than the physically unfortunate Huber. Since the introduction of the Italian bee painting, and other mechanical aids to observe the various works carried on by the inmates of the hive-the species, class, or kind so named by Huber as wax-workers, nurses and foragers-have dwindled almost into nothingness. That in the hive there are nurse-bees, wax-workers, foragers, &c., is well known to the practical bee-keeper; but that these functions are deputed to various sections of operating bees is now known to be incorrect. Huber must have the credit of the discovery of the division of labour among bees; but that a nurse-bee is always a nurse-bee is incorrect. These different functions or classes of labour carried on in the hive are performed by every bee during her lifetime. The first duty of a working bee is that of elaborating chyle food, the nursing of the inmates of the cells, and as she advances in age so is she promoted from office to office until she becomes a breadwinner of the establishment. In this final duty her wings wear out, and she dies in harness, at her post, as the little busy bee.

These nurse-bees are all-important to the bee-keeper. When bees refuse to cluster on the brood comb, or to accept a new queen, or even to rear one, it is because some of the natural conditions of the hive are absent. A want of a sufficient number of nurse-bees is a serious drawback to the prosperity of a colony. In artificial swarming "forced colonisation," if on the brood comb introduced there be not sufficient adhering bees or nurses to feed the larvæ the foragers become dissatisfied at the deserted appearance of the comb, and, refusing to stay, they swarm out or return to whence they came. A constant, regular, and good supply of nurse-bees is the important factor in queen raising. If increase of colonies is the thing sought always note that the combs introduced contain brood in all stages of development, from egg to chrysalis, as well as a good supply of stores, honey, and pollen. This last is indispensable.

Instructions issued by the German Government for the disinfection of places where animals have been kept suffering from infectious diseases.

(Extract from "The Veterinarian," October, 1895.)

I. Cleansing and Disinfecting Materials.

1. Water and steam.-Hot water should be used in preference to cold water where it is available, and as near the boiling temperature as possible. One hour's heating of substances in boiling water is sufficient to disinfect

them.

2. Soapsuds.-This may be made of either yellow or black soap, 100 lb. hot water.

1 lb. in

3. Soda Lye.-Dissolve 1 lb. of washing soda in 10 gallons water. 4. Lime. Freshly-slaked lime-shell, either in the form of powder or mixed with twice its own bulk of water and used as a thin paste, viz., milk of lime.

5. Chloride of Lime.-Fresh strongly-smelling chloride of lime may be applied in two ways, viz., as a thick paste, i.e., one part of chloride of lime to three parts of water; or as a thin paste-one part chloride of lime to twenty parts of water.

6. Carbolic Acid Solution-Mix together one part of liquified carbolic acid with twenty parts of water, viz., a 5 per cent. solution.

7. Cressol Water.-Made from cressol soap and nine parts of water. 8. Coal Tar or Wood Tar.

9. Fire. The singeing of substances that can endure fire over their whole surface is a thorough means of destroying infection.

II.-Cleansing and Disinfecting Methods.

Before cleansing, all straw, fodder, litter, and dung should be removed. Thorough cleansing must always precede methods of disinfection. The cleansing of a stall or stable must extend to everything therein, and to the soil and subsoil. All old wooden boards, linings, and the like should be taken down and burned. The cleansing should begin at the roof, then go to the walls and partitions, and lastly to the floor. Hot water or hot lye is better than cold. The cleansing of a part of a stable or the like should extend to 4 feet beyond the infected part in all directions. The water used for cleansing should not be allowed to come in contact with anything that can be a carrier of infection until it has been disinfected, and it must not go into a stream. Anything of little worth should be burned.

1. Wood, stone, and iron fixtures, if not oil-painted, should be scoured and then washed. Woodwork with a rough surface should be planed smooth, and any ragged wood or porous or rotten wood should be removed and burned.

2. Plastered walls should be scraped down, so that the whole surface is renewed, and any loose parts or ornamental parts should be taken away. 3. Oil-painted surfaces are to be washed with hot, soapy water.

4. Stone, cement, or asphalt floors are to be scoured and washed.

5. Rough flooring of stone, earth, &c., should be dug up until the limit of the inspection is reached, and after disinfection the stones and earth may be replaced.

III.-Cleaning of Utensils.

1. Wooden implements and utensils, including carts, barrows, troughs, sieves, besoms, also boots and shoes are to be thoroughly scoured and washed. 2. Iron and metal utensils, such as chains, rings, curbs, pails, &c., if they cannot have fire applied to them, should be thoroughly scrubbed clean and rinsed with hot water.

3. Leather materials, such as saddles, bridles, harness, boots, &c., should be cleansed with hot lye and then with water.

4. Clothes, ropes, halters, and all cloth materials should be washed with hot water, soap, and soda.

5. Clothes that cannot be so washed, also bedding, &c., should be aired for some days and several times beaten and brushed.

6. Hair-stuffed or wove-constructed goods must be similarly aired, beaten, and brushed.

IV. Disinfection.

In ordinary circumstances the cleansing, if thoroughly done, will be of itself sufficient, providing that the infecting material has been reached. All walls, partitions, floors, &c. should, after cleansing, be whitewashed with milk of lime; iron parts should be tarred, lacquered, or painted.

If from the nature of the case the infection has not entirely been reached by the cleansing processes, the following regulations must be attended to:1. All straw, fodder, litter, dung, and sweepings from an infected stall or stable must be burned.

2. Fodder supplies, stores of straw or hay that may have been reached by the infection, but which are not themselves the carriers of it, should be well aired for some days and frequently turned for that purpose.

3. Walls and fixtures, floors, gutters, &c., should be washed with thick lime paste or with chloride of lime paste. Iron materials should be disinfected with carbolic and solution or cressol water; so also stone or earthenware fixtures.

4. The soil or stone floor of a stable, &c., should be treated with milk of lime before any fresh litter is brought in.

5. Wooden and iron fixtures or apparatus that have been in contact with infection should if possible, have a plane passed over them, or be washed with 5 per cent. carbolic solution, or be painted or tarred, or the like. Leather stuff should be washed with 5 per cent. carbolic solution.

6. Linen, cotton, hempen, or woollen goods should be put into a steam disinfector, and subjected to steam at the boiling point of water for at least

one and a half hour. Should that not be attainable, they may be washed and steeped in boiling water, and if that cannot be done, they should be removed and burned.

7. The disinfection of the hands and instruments is obtained by treatment with 5 per cent. carbolic acid solution.

The Disinfection of Fæcal Matter.

(Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, May, 1895.)

Von Vincent has made some experiments to test the relative efficacy of the more common disinfectants, viz. :

1. Green vitriol, blue vitriol, zinc chloride.

2. Corrosive sublimate (mercuric chloride.)

3. Chloride of lime, alkaline hypochlorites.

4. Lime, potash, and soda.

5. Carbolic acid, creolin, lysol, solveal, and solutol.

The following is a summary of his conclusions:

1. A complete disinfection of fæcal matter is unnecessary, except where pathogenic germs are known to be present.

2. As regards chemical disinfectants, one must distinguish true bactericides from deodorising agents, and have regard to their relative cost.

3. In these respects the best antiseptics for the purpose of disinfecting fæcalia are blue vitriol, creolin, lysol, and then chloride of lime. Corrosive sublimate is useless, and so is zinc chloride.

4. When 1 per cent. of sulphuric acid is added to blue vitriol, its antiseptic power is increased, and when 1 per cent. hydrochloric acid is added to chloride of lime, it is much more efficacious, and these latter are the cheapest and best disinfectants of dung and litter.