The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1875-04-15
[From the Scientific Americana
The Mission of the Fly.

The generally received opinion about
flies is that, despite limitless ingenuity
expended on patent traps and poisoned
paper, they form one of those ills Of life
which. it not being possible entirely to
cure, must periorce be endured with as
good a grace as may be. Consequently
when they ruin our picture frames and
ceilings. insinuate themselves into our
milk and molasscs pitchers, or lull us to
sleep with their drowsy huzzing, only to
bite US during our slumbers and render
the same uneasy, we thank fate that the
-sspld weather will rid OF the pest. To
be sSrSe they are scavengers in their way;
but after wv>1kave spent several minutes
in picking a score orI>n,ore out Of the but
ter DISH we arrive at tha-c2ncluSion that
it is an open question whethes they do
not spoil more good material than e.hey
carry off bad.
FeStina Lente, good reader, hasten slowly
and do not anchor faith to such opinions
until you are certain that the above sum
up all the fy's mission in this world.
MuSca domeStica (Science uses six syllables
i'll latin to express that which good round
Saxon epitomizes in two) is maliened
insect. He iultills a purpose of sufficient
moment to cause you to bear his inrc ads
into your morning nap with equanimity
gregated by the score within your hid
den sweets.
Did you ever watch a fly who has just
alighted after soaring about the room for
some lite time? He goes through Sc
ries of operations which remind you of a
cat licking herself after q meal or of q
bird pluming its feathers. First, the
hind feet are rubbed together, then each
hind leg is passed over wing, then the
fore legs undergo like treatment and
lastly. if You look sharp. you will see the
insect carry his proboscis over his legs
and about his body as far as he can
reach. The minute trunk is perfectly
retractile, and it terminates in two large
lobes, which you can see spread out
when the insect begins a meal on lump
of sugar. Now the rubbing together of
legs and wings may be a smoothing op-
Grafton; but for what purpose is this
carefully going over the body with the
trunk, especially when that organ is not
fitted for licking, but simply for grasp
ing and sucking up food.
This query, which perhaps may have
suggested itself to thousands, has recent
ly for the first time been answered by a
Mr.. Emerson. an English chemist; and
certainly in the light of the revelations
of that gentleman's Investigations, the
! fly assumes the position of an important
friend instead Of a pest to mankind.
Mr. Emerson states that he began his
self-appointed task of finding out wheth
er the house fly really serves any appre-
| ciable purpose in the scheme of creation,
excepting as an Indifferent scavenger, by
capturing a fine specimen and gueing
mis- wings down TO a microscope slide.
On placing the slide under the instru-
ment, to the Investigators disgust the fly
| ! l.
| offending insect to be promptly released
and another substituted in his place.
! Fly No. was no better off than fly No. |.
and as the same might be predicted OF
flies 3, 4, 5 (or of n flies, as the algebras
have it), Mr.. Emerson concluded that
here was something which at once re-
| oured looking into. Why were the flies
lousy? Meanwhile fly No. ?. on the slide,
seemed to take mis- position very coolly,
/ and, extending his proboscis, began to
+ sweep it over his body as it he had just
tlighted. A glance through the micro
scope, however, showed that the opera
tion was not one OF Standardization;
for wherever the lice were, there the
trunk went. The lice were disappearing
into the trunk; the fly was eating them
Up to this time, the investigator had
treated his specimen as of the masculine
gender; but now he changes his mind
and concludes it to be a female, busily
devouring not lice but her own progeny.
The flies then carry their young about
them; and when the family get too nu.
merous or the mother too hungry, the
offspring are eaten.
Awhile reasoning thus, Mr.. Emerson
picked up scrap of white writing paper,
from which two flies appeared to be bu-
silly eating something, and put it under
the instrument There were the progeny
again on the paper, and easily rubbed off
with cloth This" he says, "set me
thinking. | took the paper into the
kitchen again and waved it around, ta-
king care that no flies touched it, went
back to the microscope and there found
animalcules, the same as on flies. / had
now arrived at something definite; they
were not the progeny of the fly, but an
imalcules floating in the air; and the
quick motion of the flies gathered them
on their bodies, and the flies then went
: into some quiet corner to have theii
: dainty meal"
J. The investigator goes on to desrgi6'