Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-12
JUST A FLY.

JUDI "a l
The humble house fly is one of the
oldest, and always has been one of the
most distinguished of insects. He was
/ WCrshiped by the a%ncients, and placed as
! a constellation in the heavens. The Phil
istines sacrificed to Belzebub as god of
flies. and the Cyreneans to Achor. The
Greeks offered an OK every year to Zeus
ApoyGos in honor of the god of flies, and
the Roman sacrificed yearly in the tenn
pie of Heracles Victor. in Rome. The
S~yrians, too. tried to appease the trou-
blcSone god. The Koran of the MOnam-
medans promised that "all flies shall
perish except one, and that is the bee
fly
Despite their antiquity, flies are still
something of a mystery, and it was not
until 1854 that Dr.. j. f. Rombout, a
French entomologist, discovered and adj
vocated the correct theory of how a
house. fly walks or a ceiling. DR.. Rom
bout proved that the fly clings to a
smooth surface by capillary force. the
molecular action between solid and liquid
substances.
many thousands of fine hairs, each of
which terminates in a bulb. Through
these hairs runs a thin liquid, that seeps
through in a tiny drop at the end. When
several thousands of these drops have
been fastened to a window pane or cell
ing there is no difficulty at all for the
fly to hang on and no difficulty for him to
release himself in~stantaneously.
This is the theory of Rombout, OBJ
tanned after some fine calculations. A
once popular idea was that the feet of
the fly, being c~up-shaped, enabled him
through what is called suction to cling
to the ceiling. 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 Wis
cous, and held the insect to the surface
like mucilage. This theory was explod-
ed by Rombout, who proved that the fluiu
was not viscous. And if it We're. said he,
it would be absurd to suppose that a fly.
after resting in one position for an hour
and giving the thick liquid time to hard
en-. could release himself instantly when
alarmed.
Then Rombout set about formulating
his W theory. He examined the tracks
of flies on q window pane, and the idea
Of capillary force impressed him. He
dipped the end of a hair in oil of olives
and succeeded in suspending the hair
) from a clean glass pane. Water brought
the same result as oil of olives.
BY a series of fine calculations Rombout
:. found that a fly could walk upward on a
vertical glass pane supporting an in
crease over his own weight of 90 of Il
grain. He then weighted down flies with
papers attached to their backs and found
by experiment that his reckoning was
correct.
Each Of the two wings of the insect is
provided With hairs on the underside that
) serve as q fine brush to clean the feet.
When a fly rub his legs he is not always
washing his body, but is often removing
the dust particles from the hair in his
feet that the fluid may run better. The
feet must be kept clea: or the fly cannOt
cling to a surface. He finds it impOssi-
BILE to walk across a pane covered with
dust, and oily surfaces cause the liquid
from his feet to run together, SO that ne
is apt to Slip.
Under the wings of the fly is a pair OF
baiancers, little threads that terminate
each in an oval button. When the fly is
on the wing these buttons expand and
guide the flight.
A fly has no lungs. but breathes by
spiracles or breathing pores that lie open
all over his body and connect with an in
tricate system Of air tubes. These spira-
cles are protected from the dust by net
works of fine, filmy fibers that look some
thing like exquisite lacework.
The chief value Of a fly lies in his scav-
enging qualities. Indeed. some scientists
say thai without his assistance man
would not be able to live in the temperate
zone.
Linnaeus. the Swede. asserted that
three flies with their progeny could de-
your a dead horse as quickly as a lior
could. 1t has been stimate by scient-
lists that a fly can multiply himself 20(
times every "a hours. Each newborn fly
becomes full grown in four or five days.
Nature has provided we'll for the fly
in his powers Of fight and ability OF
escaping from danger. He is supplied
with 1000 separate eyes that never sleer
and can look either in front or behind
Each eye is separate and of peculiar con
struction. shaped like a heXagon. Wher
alarmed the lly leaps swiftly from his
resting place into the air, detaching his
legs without difficulty.
After the first bound he is generally out
of danger. and resumes his l%eiSurely
fight. If he chooses, however, he car
fly 25 or 80 feet in 4 second.
ONLY 81 no eOIrND TpJp