The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-07
NOTHING LACKING IN THE FLY.
He Is Admirably Constructed for
Serving the Purposes of His Crea-
From the Kansas city Star.

From the Kansas City Star.
The humble househy is one. of the Oldest
and always has been one of the most dis
tinguished Of insects. lie was worshipped
by the ancients and placed as a constella-
ton In the heavens. The Phlistines sac
rbhced to Beelzebub as god of flies and the
Cyreneans at Achor. The Greeks offered
an OK every year TO Zeus Apomylos in
honor of the god of flies and the Romans
sacrificed yearly in the temple of Eeracles
Victor IN Rome. The Syraus too, tried
to appease the troublesome god The Ko-
ran of the Mahometans promised that "all
flies shall perish except one. and that Is
the bee fly"
Despite their antiquity, flies are still
something Of mystery, and it was not
until 1894 that DR. e. j. Rombout, a
French entomologist, discovered and adj
Vocated the correct theory of how house
fly walks on a ceiling. Or. Rombout
proved that the fly clings 20 a smooth sur
face by capillary force. the molecular ac-
ton between solid and liquid substances
The Insects feet are covered with many
thousands of fine hairs each of which
terminates in a bulb Through these hairs
runs thin liquid that seeps through In a
tiny drop at the end. When several thou
sands of these drops have been fastened
TO a window pane or ceiling there is no
difficulty at all for the fly to hang on and
80 RaAANHiNJ ADA Allil " AERtdHb himself
instantaneously.
This Is the story Of Rombout. obtained
after some very fine calculations A once
popular idea was that the feet OF the fly
being cup-shaped, enabled him through
what Is called suction TO cling to the cell
ing. But Blackwell put flies in a glass
vacuum, where they climbed the sides as
easily as in the open air Hooke next
tried to prove that the fluid the feet of
the fly sent out was viscous. and held the
insect to the surface like mlcifage This
theory was exploded by Rombout, who
proved that the fluid was not viscous.
And IL il were, said he, 1t would be alb
surd TO suppose that ny, after resting in
one position for an hour and giving the
thick liquid time TO harden, could release
himself instantaneouely when alarmed
Then Rombout sci about formulating his
own theory. He examined the tracks OF
flies ON window pane, and the idea of
capillary force impressed him. He dip
ped the end of a hair IN oil of olives. and
succeeded I'm suspending the hair from a
Clean glass pane. Water brought the same
result as OH Of olives. BY a series of
fine calculations Rombout found that a
fly could walk upward on a vertical glass
pane supporting an increase over his own
weight OF % OF a grain. He then weight
ed down flies by experiment that his reck-
oning was correct.
nnents, discovered other very interesting
things about the fly. Each of the two
wings OF the insect is provided with hairs
on the under side that serve as q fine
brush to clean the feet. When a fly rubs
his legs he is not always washing his
body. but is often removing the dust par
ticles from the hair in his feet that the
fluid may run better. The feet must be
kept clean or the fly cannot cling to a
surface. He finds II impossible to walk
across a pane covered with dust and oily
surfaces cause the liquid from his feet to
run together. TO that he Is apt to slip
Under the wings OF a fly is a pair Of ball
ancers, little threads that terminate each
In an oval button. When the fly Is on the
wing these buttons expand and guide the
flight fly has no lungs,
bat breathes by spracles or
breathing pores, that he opon all
over his body and connect with an intri-
cate system of air tubes. These spiracIes
are projected from the dust by networks
of fine, filmy ibers that look something
like exquisite lacework.
The chief value Of the fly lies In his scav-
enging qualities. Indeed, some scientists
say that without his assistance man would
not be able 10 live IN the temperate zone
The fly foods on both liquids and solids.
His mouth Is shaped something like a
pump, and he sips perspration and saliva
his faVorite foods, through fine and cum
ming tubes. Solids he reduces to liquids
before he swallows them by a process of
secretion. He Is a voracious eater, and
lives largely on the juices of decaying
meat, fruit and vegetables. Lnnaeus, the
Swede, asserted that three flies with their
progeny could devour a dead horse as
quickly as a lion could. II has been esti-
mated by scientists that a fly can multi
ply himself two hundred times every TWEEN
ty-four hours. Each newborn fly becomes
full grown In four or five days.
Nature has provided well for the fly IN
his powers of flight and ability to escape
from danger. He Is supplied with Z 900 sep
arate eyes that never sleep, and can look
either In front or behind Each eye Is sep
arate and Of peculiar constructiong shaped
like a hexagou. When alarmed the fy
leaps swiftly from his resting place into
the air, detaching his legs with no appar-
emf difficulty. After thdAnrst bound he Is
generally out OF danger and resumes his
leisurely flight. IL he chooses, however,
he can ~ twenty-five or thirty feet in
a