The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-08-25
The Fly at the Bar.

The determination Of malaria and
breeding places of mosquitoes was
great triumph of sanitary admins
tration. The house-fy presents uni
versal opportunity for a still greater
triumph, says Theodore Dresser in
the Delineator for September. The
Merchants Association of New York
City, in it's bulletins of 1908 and 1903,
presents incontrovertible evidence
against the house-fy-evidence that
every mother and teachers of mothers
should have, and which may be got
by applying to the association.
The house-fiy has been condemned
by a court from which there is no
appeal. Health and meteorological
experts all over the country have
pronounced the verdict guilty"
Whereas the fly was once considered
a scavenger sent in hot weather to
eat up the germs that abound, it is
now considered a filthy insect. Bred
in manure, it drinks from cess-pools
and dimes in privey vaults. 1t eats
the suntum on the sidewalk and
revels in the garbage-pail. 1t hovers
over the baby's diaper and is greedy
or the dressings from dischargillg
wound. 1t is germ-carrier. It
brings typhoid fever, diarrhoea, dys-
entery and tuberculosis to the very
gateway of the human body. After
its repast of filth it crawls over your
freshly-frosted cake, swims in your
lemonade, cleans its feet on the
bread brought in a sealed paper bag.
Direct from the neighboring privy it
crawls over the sweet lips of your
sleeping baby or settles on the steril-
lied nipple Of it's nursing bottle The
fly that you fish out of your baby's
milk, milk for which you have paid
fifteen cents quart, may have been
feeding on the excrement of a patient
recovering from diarrhoea or typhoid
fever. The flies on the fruit you buy
at that street corner for your chill
dren may have last fed on the sput-
um Of consumptive. AS many as
six million six hundred thousand bac-
terra have been found op a single fly.
Yet the house-fly is tolerated every
where.
Milk and hot weather are blamed
for the great number Of infant deaths
from diarrhoea or summer COM
plant" A careful study Of the sea-
sonal prevalence Of flies by means of
daily counts from fiy-cages made in
different parts Of New York City by
the Merchants Association shows
that flies were active in large num-
bers only in the comparatively few
hot weeks of summer, while the
health statistics showed that these
were the very weeks when an abnor-
NAL number Of cases of typhoid fever
and diarrhoea were contracted. These
diseases rose with the rise in preva-
lence of flies and fell i with the
decrease in the numbers of flies trap
ped. When We consider that one fly.
laying one hundred and twenty eggs
at a time will have a progeny Of SEX
tilltOns at the end of the season and
that milk is the best germ culture
known. it is easy to see the 1y's part
in spreading intestinal diseases.
Screen all doors and windows as
soon as the fly season sets in, espe-
cially the kitchen, dining, room and
nursery. Wire netting is more SER
viceable. but cotton netting at three
cents a square yard~keeps the flies
out. Keep flies away from your baby.
Keep flies off your food and milk. Do
not buy food exposed for sale un-
screened. Don't forget that the
breeding place Of flies is in nearby
filth. 1t may be behind the door,
under the table. or in the cuspidor.
If there is a nuisance in the neigh
borhood, report it at once to the
health department and demand abate-
ment.
Every health department should
distribute pamphlets warning the
people of the danger where flies lurk.