The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-06-25
THE FLY TO BLAME.
Eminent Writer Lays Responsible.
ity of Disease to Common
House Fly.

O.AssAAVeA
F: House Fly.
The musca domestica or common
house-fiy, says Mary Human Abel in
here paper on Flies and Food" in
The Delineator for July, is known to
convey cholera in the east, and is I'M
der suspicion as to other diseases.
Its origin and habits are such as to
put us on our guard. 1t lays its eggs
in excrement, preferring horse ma
nure, but If that does not offer, read
lily using any other. 1t feeds on the
same and on the spotum of diseased
threats and lungs, on refuse of all
kinds and 1t bears on its hairy feet
and legs particles of these substances.
Unlike the mosquito, the housefiy is
not biter-but it has its own way of
carrying contagion. 1t deposits, where
ever it goes, disease; and disease
germs may abound in its breeding and
feeding places. On the joint of meat
exposed for sale by the butcher, on
the bread and sweetmeats of the con-
fectioner's counter, on the edge of the
milk pail on the kitchen and dining
room tables, they have been found
The epidemic of typhoid fever in
Chicago in 1902 fixed guilt on the fly.
1t was especially severe in the nine
teenth ward, which furnishes one-sev-
enth of the deaths, while containing
but one thirty-sixth of the city's pop
ulation. This locality did not differ
from the rest of the city in its water
or its food supply, but it did differ in
having more than fifty per cent of it's
houses without sanitary plumbing, the
" ~ndra;ned oSosets =, tha I tausns
and ~ tha roo,o os -. ot;o -" ien .o.s
nnovad - oorrr ~ aoan, p"en' were
p'o'N ~ ~-' 'Ae eeA'
They Spread Disease.
Yet, whatever the house fly may
think about it, the time has come, ac-
cording to many medical men, when
the musca d0mestica, as they call the
insect, must be banished brom the
abOdes of men. 1t has been found
to be not only nuisance but menace
to mans health. Its hairy body car
ries bottle disease and death. Many
epidemics which sweep over COM
munities in the hot season have been
traced to the fly. Having its origin
in filth, 1t brings with it the bacteria
which breed In filth. And as it moves
about, now crowling over refuse, now
over the food of the table, flying from
the lips Of the sick to the hips of the
healthy, it is said to be more danger
bus to modern society than were the
wild beasts to primitive man.
An illustration of how the house fly
may disseminate the germs of cholera
was shown not long ago in Manila
prison. This disease had been caus-
ing the deah of two to five convicts
day. Neither the water nor the foods
were infected, as had been proved
by careful examination. Finally. the
surgeons suspected the flies, and ac-
cordingly they took the most drastic
precautions to prevent them from
reaching any infectious materials in
the prison. They also kept them from
the foods. All the windows and doors
we're screened, and flypaper was used
in large quantities to catch occasional
intrudors. The epidemic promptly
ended.
The high mortality among children
in the congested districts of city,
where refuse accufnulates fast, where
food is often Kept in living rooms, is
due to a large degree, so scientists
now say, to the fly. Infant diseases
chiefly prevail in the hot season, when
the flies abound. DR.. ]. T. C. Nash,
in THE Journal of the Royal Sanitary
institude," giving his experience as an
English health officer, says that the
fly is responsible for the death of
many children because of polluting the
milk which they drink. The fly is
especially fond of milk, and plants
bacteria in it which breed rapidly.
Milk is thus infected. not only in city
homes, where 1t Is exposed. but at
farms before 1t is brought to the city.
Practically all dairymen keep horses,
and most times the horse stables are
near the COW Darns. In this way the
flies breeding in the stables fly al
most Directly 70 the milk. Unless
special precautlons are taken mes on
farm may also transler typnoid
serms 10 .ne mix IRON cesspools ana
earn Vauits. Il.
iIe ny 10 now reared almost as
Mucn ny an army as tne guns OF an
enemy enemy vnless camp IL properly;
uraIheo, tne quarters LOT the norsesl
kep. especiaily clean. ana tne sweep
lass from mem removed long way
on, ana, most OF an II tne camp
s hiecnens are not scIeende' ana the
SILKS anu Ioou receptacies kept per-
aectiy y,, irse IRON mes Iatai epidemics
are hkely 70 Dreak out Inc large
death t6o rate among the American troops
~ 1850 was que. y IL now Delieved,
70 tne ny. surgeon General stern
Ing in and as early Il n as A assd