Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1906-09-22


: che "grevious swarm of flies
brought on the Egyptians by Moses
: the lsraelite in that long struggle
for freedom. In the simple and tell
Ing words of the narrative, "the lane
was corrupted"
do not need to be told that this
fly of Egypt was perhaps not the
musca domestica, our common house
: fly, but some more noxious variety
known to the East. It is enough to
know that the house fly is found in
every land and cline, and that IL
was quite capable of proving gre
vious" and corrupting" on that oc-
casion. Because of its intimate as
ISOLATION with man, 1t is the only
variety worth considering in it's re-
lations to health-at least in our
climate. OF 23,O87 flies caught in
dining rooms in the year 1905, SO.
per cent. were found to be the com
mon house fly.
This insect, with its air pump feet
and its faceted eyes, may be thing
of beauty to the entomologist; its
drowsy buzzing on the pane has even
inspired poets; but we may be sure
that the poet sang of some fly
reused to life in early March by
day of premature heat. But taken
collectively, and in summer, the fly
is hateful creature. Not only is It
responsible FOR lines of worry in the
housekeeper' Taco, but II has beep
proved to be serious menace to
health.
To begin with, its origin and hab-
its are such as to put us on our
guard. 1t lays it's eggs in excrement,
preferring horse manure, but If that
does not offer readily using any
other 1t feeds on the same and on
the sputum of diseased throats and
lungs, on refuse of all kinds, and it
bears on its hairy feet and legs par
ticles of these substances.
Thanks to the science of bacteriol-
ogy, our case against the fly Is no
longer guesswork-it has been made
to walk across the sterile gelatine
plate, and the microscope has later
told us what 1t fetches and carries.
Unlike the mosquito, the house fly is
not biter-but it has it's own way
of carrying contagion. 1t deposits,
| wherever it goes, disease; and dis
ease germs may abound in it's breed
Ing and feeding places. On the joint
of meat exposed for sale by the
butcher, on the bread and sweet
meats of the confectioner's counter,
on the edge of the milk pail, on the
kitchen and dining room tables, they
have been found.
To understand fully the possible
danger of allowing this insect access
to our food supplies, We must remem-
Der that in the diseases called en-
teric-those affecting the intestinal
tract, such as cholera, dysentary and
typhoid fever-multltudes of germs
peculiar to the disease are voided
not only during the attack, but for
some days before the disease is rec
ognized and for considerable periods |
Of time after recovery, and since the |
contagion is spread from person to |
another solely by these germs as they |
find access to water or food, to guard |
the water supply from contamination |
and to forbid the sale. of milk from |
tho dairy farms where any conta- |
gion exists Is we'll recognized as the |
first duty of the Health Board but |
comparatively recent is the knowl-
edge that flies also carry the germs
Of these diseases.
In 1888 DR.. Nuttall had shown |
that flies transmitted cholera. In
1895 DR.. Kober, of Washington, said
that typhoid fever was spread by |
their aid in old-fashioned non-sew-
cred dwellings, but not until the
Cuban war, three years later, was
this transmission proved on such
scale as to convince the medical pro-
fession. 1t was then that we began
our real acquaintance with the fly |
and all his works.
Not only does the fly carry about
on his feet and legs any disease
germs, but such germs taken into
the body in food are known to re-
main alive in its intestines and also
for days after they are elected in the
specks. By recent experiments this
has been proved true of both the tu-
berculosis and the typhoid bacillus,
the germs in the speck having actu-
ally given the disease from nine to
fifteen days after it was deposited.
This is very important point, as
1t establishes on new ground the dan
ger of splitting in the street or wher-
ever flies can have access to the
sputum. A lull in the efforts to pre-
vent public splitting came on the dis
covery that tuberculosis germs ex-
posed to direct sunlight must perish
in from twenty-four to thirty hours,
but since we discovered that the fly,
who greedily feeds on the sputum,
can transport it to considerable dis
tances and, keep 1t alive and virulent
for many days, the splitting nuisance
has assumed new Importance.
In the average slaughter house
both the common and the blow fly
cover the carcasses. In one case,
after the law had required the use
of screens on the windows, the butch
ers expressed their satisfaction, DE
cause now they did not have to spend
their time digging out fly blows" In
any open market buyers stand I'M
moved before leg of beef outlined
in black, the mass rising now and
then when the butcher shakes his
brush. One would suppose them a
dispensation from heaven, so calmly |
do we accept the burden.
What about flies in the milk bust
ness? One observer describes an
aerator through which the fresh milk
was passing as covered with flies"
Now, If these flies had just had ac-
cess to matter infected with typhoid
enough colonies could have been
started in that good culture medium
to cause an epidemic of the disease,
and who but this observer would