The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-06-24
FLIGHT OF THE
FLY
BY FREDRlc j. HAsKIN.

BY FHEDRiC j. HHSNiN'
The fight on the house fly that is now
! being made i'm the various cities OF me
country has brought about a complete
revolution Of sentiment as 10 tnat INSECT
When science came to look carefully INTO
his habits. Mr.. Fly was found not 70 De
the tnOffensive sort of citizen he mad al
ways been regarded. It had long Desh
known that he was bOthersOme, but ne
was found to be a villain Of the deepest
dye, killing more people every year thah
are killed by all the murderers IN the
world. He has been given new name
since his true character has come TO
/ light, name which brands him wherever
/ he goes-the typhoid fly DR.. l. o.
Howard the United States entOmOlOgist
| has selected that name for him. he
/ agrees that the term is a little harsh,
as there are other causes Of typhoid, and
/ says that manure fly would ut MN
rather better. since his favOrtte breeding
/ place Is in horse manure. But for pub
/ lie use DR.. Howard thinks typhoid fly
/ is the best name
| The evidence against the fly is COM
I pleLe, and convincing. Many a murderer
/ has gone TO the gallows on weaker. Not
/ long ago IA flies were caught in differ
/ ent parts Of the country, and they car
rled an average Of million and a quarter
/ germs TO the fly. It may be said by the
| skepuc that the fly IS so small he cannot
/ carry filth. But if anyone viii look at
him through a high-power9d microscope
]
/ clearly seen. Under the microscope he be
comes the most fuzzy creature alive,
/ hairy from tip to toe, and terribly in
/ different about keeping clea1.
! These 4l4 flies We're caught in sterilized
! nets. so that none Of the germs found
could be laid to the account of the net.
/ Then each fly was placed in a separate
/ bottle which had been sterilized and filled
1 with known quantity Of sterilized
/ water The fly was allowed to swim
/ around until exhausted, and then a drop
| OF the water was placed under a micro
| scope and the germs counted careful
/ record of each fly was kept, and the
/ germs found on each were found to range
| from $50 to $500 000-estimated. The next
| fly that falls into the readers coffee
| or MS milk may leave six million germs
The house fly is thoroughly omnivorous.
/ he VIII eat anything that he comes
/ better II suits him. Breeding in manure
/ by preference he spends a fair share or
| his living days in such surroundings. He
fues direct from the manure heaps to
/ our houses and onto our food. whenever
! opportunity presents itself, and is always
| laden with microscopic particles Of filth,
ana disease. Here again has Mr.. Fly
been caught with the goods on him,
as the police say. In the army camps
] during the Spanish-AmeriCan war il was
| found that the flies which swarmed about
the latrInes would come directly to the
mess tents, the white lime being plainly
visible on their feet. In New York filth
was dyed with red ink and set in the
street. Flies soon showed up I'm the house
with red on their feet
! me most startling and conclusive evil
] dence that has been brought against the
! lily is that gathered BY DR.. Daniel D
jackson, in his investigation Of the sub
lect of harbor pollution at New York
| Win his assistants he went into the
! whole question with great thoroughness
ana his findings are noteworthy He
/ round that in the neighbOrhoods of sewer
/ outlets the flies were most numerous. and
| that IN those same neighbOrhOOds typhoid
/ FEVER and other intestinal diseases were
/ most prevalent. The number Of victims
OF these diseases rose and fell with the
coming and passing Of the fly tribe Daily
examinations of captured flies were made
and millions Of germs were found In
some instances the flies were carefully
/ washed and completely cleansed Of
/ germs They were then released and al
/ ioWed 70 swarm over infected material
| IN the laboratory. They collected as many
! germs the second and third time as they
1 dld the first In one instance a hundred
! thousand typhoid fever germs were foiInf
| on a single fly.
In New York there are more than 5000
| deaths from typhoid and other intestinal
/ diseases curing the fly season. 1t is es-
! tlmated that were the fly effectuallv ban
! lsned II would result in the saving of
/ 5'VVJ lives year in that city and the
| prevention of 5000 cases Of sickness
! typhoid fever is estimated by experts to
/ cause an annual economic loss amount
/ ing to S350Oo0OO0 in the United States
/ ana fully S25,00O00 in Canada. 1t is also
sstgs U.s. 6d6 90 mat the American people spend
! SluOW,WO year for door and window
/ screens Not only is the fly a dissent
/ natOr Of typhoid, but he likewise commu-
! nlcates tuberculosis by carrying il from
the sputum of tubercular patients to 9th
/ ers, and carries every form of intestine I
] disease 1t Is said that much of the
I enolera infantum. the most fatal of chill
dren S diseases is. carried TO the little
It has been found, in studying the life
| history OF the fly, that the female laws
/ an average of 120 eggs during her life
! time, and that in favorable localities there
/ are twelve generations of them in a sin
/ gle season. One writer has figured from
/ this that the progeny Of a single pair of
/ flies which survived the winter would
/ amount to several sextillions But when
it is remembered that one sextiflion is
/ one thousand million trillion, II will ap-
! pear that he has OvershOt the mark If
| every egg Matched. and every female fly
| lived to lay l20 eggs, the result would be
just about what was estimated. 3ut
! figuring that only fifty females would
hatch from the eggs of each fly, the
result would still reach the fnconceiv-
able total Of ass quintilliOn flies.
! How impossible it is that even such
1 figures obtain is shown when one comes
/ to figure up the bulk that such a num-
Der OF flies would make. More than 100
flies cannot be contained in a cubic inch
OF space, yet piled that closely ass quin-
tilliOn flies would cover 10000 square
miles OF territory one foot thick, and
the progeny Of 302 pairs Of flies would
/ cover every acre of United States terri
| tory one foot thick But if each female
| fly brought forth only ten other female
/ flies, the total progeny of a pair of flies
/ starting at the beginning of the season
/ would be over twenty-six trillion. Even
today at an afternoon affair for Miss
Cora Little.