Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-21
WAR AGAINST FLIES
Uncle Sam Will Institute a
Vigorous Campaign.
STRUGGLE rs NOW ON
NUMEROUS VARIETIES OF THE
PEST AND THEIR DANGER.
The Mere Presence of Some is More
Dangerous Than the Bite
of Others.
STRUGGLE rs NOW ON
Written for The Evening Star.

Written for The Evening Star.
[ The United States government is en-
broiled in another war. This time it has
opened hoStilities on the common enemy Of
mankind, the fly, and one of the most i'm
portant branches of the national machinery,
the Agricultural Department, will devote
itself to exterminating the pestiferous in
sects without regard to class or previous
condition. No quarter will be offered, and
the campaign in Mindanao will be holiday
excursion compared to the war on the fly.
1t will be remembered, no doubt, that in
recent years the Agricultural Department
has made a speciality of studying the dis
eases distributed by insects the mosquito
being put under the ban some time ago.
Summer tourists in Jersey may allege that.
they are troubled fully much as of yore,
but the government experts ask only lit
tie more time; they hope eventually to be
able to reduce the inroads of the mosquito
to sporadic outbursts. And the investiga-
tons have resulted in more good than a
partial determination of the insects. They
have taught people something about the
various diseases transmitted by these
| minute pests, and have fnculcated the
necessity of caution as means OF pre-
venting the spread of yellow fever, malaria
| and similar diseases.
| Now the division of entomology, which
| has had charge or all the campaigns against
| insect pests. will turn its attention to the
| fles. Literature has been prepared and
methods of determination have been devised
! under the supervision of DR.. o. L. Howard,
| the chief of the division. Already thou
sands of pamphlets have been put into the
hands of health boards and farmers
| throughout the country. The necessity has
been urged of having better sanitation in
the rural districts. Chemistry has been in
voked, and as result of various expert
ments it is thought that the number of flies
| will be rapidly and enormously lessened
during the present summer.
The literature sent out by the government
will give to the people some information:
concerning flies that hitherto has been in
the possession of the scientist almost ex-
clusively. 1t will dispel the Illusion that the
common housefy bites. but 1t will also call
attention to the fact that this insect the
"musca domestica," is a dangerous crea-
| ture, even If he cannot give human beings
those tantaliZing little nips with which
he has been credited. DR.. Howard has the
following to say about flies and the cam
paign he is preparing to wage:
The Spreading of Disease.
so much is said nowadays of the car
riage of a certain class of diseases by mos
quitoes that the agency of flies in the trans
| mission of another class of diseases is apt
to be overlooked. The malarial germ has
to pass through the body of certain mos
quitoes before attaining its highest devel-
opment or its full life history. So far as
we know, as yet mosquitoes are secondary
elements in the development of this disease
germ. The malarial germ, for instance. is
an animal organism. 1t belongs to the
group known protocol, and from anal
ogy it is altogether likely that the as yet
undiscovered germ of yellow fever will also
prove to belong to the same class of para
site organisms.
THE parasite which causes Texas fever
in cattle is also analogous to the minute
SpOre which causes malaria in human be-
ings. 1t inhabits the blood just as does the
malarial parasite, and is conveyed by the
biting insect.
with disease caused by bacterial or
ganisms (Which belong to the plant king
dom and not to the animal king