The Washington herald., 1908-06-19
By FREDERIC ]. HASKIN.

With the growing heat Of summer comes
the increased danger OF typhoid and in
testinal diseases. the majority Of which
are spread by that ever active pest, the
common house fly. With the fear Of epi-
denies has come q concerted effort on the
part Of progressive cities to exterminate
the fly. There are 10000 cases of ty-
phoid fever in the United States every
year, and 10 per cent. of these cases are
fatal The fever Is spread through three
routes-water. milk. and flies Water is
responsible for the greater number of
cases, but infected milk has its hun
dreds TO account for, and flies many hun
dred more Last years Investigations in
York City showed that there were $50
deaths from typhoid and 1000 deaths
from other intestinal diseases that were
traceable directly to diseases spread
through the agency of flies.
Diseases OF a distinctly unpleasant ma
ture are those which the hy spreads best
-Asiatic cholera typhoid fever. dysen-
terry. and tuberculosis Bred In the filth
Of barnyards and city dumps. the house
ny lives Up to its greatest possibilities as
disseminatOr Of filth and disease On
It's fuzzy hairy little legs Il can carry
10000 bacteria that II drops In an in
uuerent and careless way into the near
est milk pitcher, on the most convenient
market table or the most attractive
confectionery stand. u Is never a direct
ana Intentional malefactor. for II does
not bite and infect in that way. il merely
trails through the filth that Il loves and
lets the gathered bacilu fall off on any
surface that II passes over. These bac-
terla may live for two weeks. and so can
De carried long distances on the fly's
legs, or, as they are indgestible, they can
be carried IN the allmentary canal of the
fiy and spread the contagiOn many miles
from che original source a fact that
Chicago woman has established after
careful work in her laboratory
1t was only In 1904, scarcely four years
ago, that the charge OF criminal careless
ness was first preferred against the house
ny Up TO that time, and even now in
the rural districts, II was believed 10 be
useful scavenger. a worthy and harm
less member OF the insect world. Then
the medicine men got busy In their pri-
vate and municipal laboratories. and.
among other valuable things that they
demonstrated 10 the world was that the
house fly was directly responsible for some
twenty or thirty thousand deaths i'm this
country each year. So war was declared
1t is to be a hard and bitter way, for
the house fly can reproduce its species
with rapidity and IN numbers that
paralyze the modern statistician. Dr.
Packard. short while ago. put one hy
IN a bottle and kept IL there for fourteen
hours. In that time it laid 12O eggs-aI-
most ten for every hour. As 81 takes only
from eight 20 twcnty-four hours TO hatch
the eggs, ana fly is mature and ready
10 reproduce its kind I'm ten or fourteen
days from the time the egg IS laid. II
may be seen that even one fly In a given
summer can do much toward increasing
the death roll Of q community. and Incl
dentally people It's world with uncount-
able millions OF pests within a year.
The crusade against flies has been so
Tar confined TO the cities. and 70 a very
Few Of these. In the country and rural
districts where there Is most typhoid. and
where the facilities for fiy-breedinE are
unlimited. the death rate from typhoid
is higher. There are nearly three times
as many cases Of typhoid in the country
as there are in the city, and Il IS notice
aole that the city rate always goes up
who had spent the summers IN the coun-
try turn cityward again. bringing the
germs OF typhoid ready for the fly 70 dis
tribute when the disease has developed
The death rate is lower in the city. where
more intelligent handling Of the disease
prevents its spread The Indiana State
Board OF Health recently began a vleor-
Gus campaign against the fly. distributing
educational literature and encouraging a
wider knowledge % the danger lying in
the tolerance Of these pests. Detroit over
year ago recognized the danger Of con
taminatiOn from files In typhoid cases
and issued instructive circulars. making
especial point Of the fact that food must
be kept isolated from files. The national
government. has evidenced a greater in
terest in the control OF preventable dis
cases by considering a bill that will al
low the United States Marine Hospital
Service greater latitude in handling con-
tagious diseases. and providing for CO.
operation with State. Territorial district
and municipal authorities IN this work
When II is known that insects of various
kinds disseminate the germs of leprosy.
cholera. dysentery. elephautiasis. filariasis.
anthrax trachoma, typhus. cancer. tuber-
culosis, and typhoid, the need Of national
and interstate cooperation IS keenly evil
dent.
Chicago has begun an educational cam
paigl on large scale. New York has
been working with a will and lndomitable
courage ever since one OF the city bac-
teriologists intercepted a fly on its way
from a stable 70 a milk depot, and dis
covered that 10000 baclln were on its
legs. and that when these were left on a
glass plate IN the laboratory by the i'm
pris0red fly, n mass OF swarming. death
dealing bacilll sprang into life. each cap
able Of endangering a human life. New
York has found that infant mortality is
greatest ia that city at fy-ume. and
health authorities are beginning crusade
that viii make hy screens an imperative
necessity on all houses and that will
abolish rank garbage and stable refuse
from ill-tended alleys.
Evidence against the fly is plentiful
During the Spanish-American war a com
mittec appointed by the Surgeon General
Of the Army found that typhoid was not
SO prevalent among mon who ate I'm
screened tents, and that as the fy dis
appeared in camps at Knoxville and
Meade. typhoid greatly decreased. DR.
H. A. Needer claims that the Nv is a more
dangerous agent In spreading typhoid
than either water or milk J. o. Cobh
of the Marine Hospital Service. has proved
the fly a carrier Of tuberculosis bacui
investigators In the Philippines found
cholera spread by fruit that had been
exposed on public stands and infected bv
flies. In Chicago two women from Hull
House conducted exhaustive experiments
to discover the cause OF typhoid emf
demic in certain quarter. and after
study Of foods, screening sanitation
water, and milk supplies. finally proved
the fly TO be at fault.