Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-04-22


The Mission or the Fly.
THE generally-received opinion about
flies is that, despite limiflcss ingenuity
expended on patent traps and poisoned
paper, they form one OF those ills of life
which, il not being possible entirely to
cure, must perforce be endured with as
good grace rs may be. Consequently
when they ruin our picture frames and
ceilings, insinuate themselves into our
milk and molasses pitchers, or lull as to
sleep with their drowsy buzzing, only to
bite us during our slumbers and render
the same uneasy, we thank fate that the
cold weather will rid US of the pest. To
be sure, they are scavengers in their way;
but after we have spent several minutes
In picking q score or more out of the
bufter-dish we arrive at the conclusion
that ii is an open question whether they
do not spoil more good material than
they carry off bad.
Pestin0 lesse, good reader, hasten slow
" and do not anchor faith to such opin-
ions until you are certain that the above
sum up all of the fy's mission In this
world. Ausod donseSfsod (science uses
six syllables in Latin to express that
which good round Saxon epi.omizes in
two) is maligned insect He fulfills
purpose of sufficient moment to cause
you TO bear his inroads into your morn.
ing nap with equanimity, or even COM
plscently to view him congregated by
the score within your hidden sweets.
Did you ever watch fly who has just
alighted after soaring about the room for
some little time. He goes through
series of operations which remind you
of cat licking herself after a meal, or
of bnd pluming its feathers. First,
the hind feet are rubbed together, then
each hind leg is passed over wing, then
the forelegs undergo q 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 meal on lump
of sugar. Now the rubbing together of
legs and wings may be smoothing oper-
alton; 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 grasping
and sucking up food,
This query, which perhaps may have
suggested itself to thousands, has re-
Gently for the first time been answered
by Mr.. Emerson, an English chemist;
and certainly, in the light of the revela-
tons of that gentleman's investigations,
portant friend instead of pest to man
kind. Mr.. Emerson states that he be-
gan his self-appointed task of finding
ont hot har -Aty llxy
any appreciable purpose In the scheme
of creation, excepting as an indifferent
scavenger, by capturing fine specimen
scope slide. On placing the slide under
the instrument to the Investigators dis
gust, the fly appeared covered with lice,
promptly released and another substi-
off than fly No. /, and as the same might
the algebras have it), Mr.. Emerson con-
cluded that here was something which
at once required looking into. Why
were the flies lousy Meanwhile fly No.
2, on the slide, seemed to take his posi-
ton very coolly, and extending his pro-
boscis began to sweep 1t over his body
IL
through the microscope, however, showed
that the operation was not one OF self
Identification; 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
changes his mind and concludes 1t to be
90 1n h,,cs Mi Int
her own progeny. The flies then carry
family get too numerous or the mother
too hungry, the offspring are eaten.
Awhile reasoning thus, MIR. Emerson
picked up q scrap OF white writing paper,
from which two flies appeared to be
the instrument. There were the progeny
with cloth. This" he says, "set me
thinking. took the paper into the
kitchen again and waved it around, TAX
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 anil
malcules floating in the air, and the
QulCA nOkiVnb Va VIC uiCo k0tuCA va WHO'LL
on their bodies and the flies then went
into some quiet corner to have their
dainty meal"
The investigator goes on to describe
how he continued the experiment in a
variety OF localities, and how, in dirty
and bad-smelling quarters, he found the
myriads of flies which existed there
literally covered with animalcules,
while other flies, captured in bed.
rooms or well-ventilated, clean apart
ments, were miserably lean and entirely
free from their prey. Wherever filth ex.
listed, evolving germs which might gen
crate disease, there were the flies, COW
ering themselves with the minute or
ganisms and greedily devouring the same.
Mr.. Emerson, while thus proving the
utility of the fly, has added another and
lower link to that curious and necessary
chain OF destruction which exists In
animated nature. These inanitesimal
animacules form food for the flies, the flies
for the spiders, the spiders for the birds,
the birds for the quadrupeds, and SO on
up to the last of the series, serving the
same purpose to man. He certainly de-
serves credit for an interesting and novel
investigation and for an intelligent dis