The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1909-06-09
Is THE MOST DEADLY ANIMAL ALIVE
Public Health Wagng War on Pest Whose Extermina-
ton Scenc. Has Agreed Is of Great Importance
ar1osh in Harner'sM
From FIeishman in Harper's Weekly.

That the most dangerous animal
on earth is the common and despised
house fly is the conclusion, not OF
sensation-mongers, but of cool-head-
ed and cautious scientific investiga-
tors.
The fly has been found guilty, in
fact, of being the chief agent in the
transmission of numerous bacteria,
including those of tuberculosis, but
principally the bacilli of typhoid and
intestinal diseases. That flies are
carriers of disease has been recog-
nized by sanitarians for a decade and
two years that the extensive investi-
cations have been undertaken which
have exposed the constant danger to
health which these pests convey
and which have also, fortunately,
demonstrated the ease with which
flies may be eliminated from properly
kept households.
Although Cell had shown, in 1888,
that flies formed a medium for the
transmission of typhoid bacilli it
was in 1895 that DR.. George M. KO-
Der, health officer of the District of
Columbia, first suggested that many
cases of typhoid fever might be due
to their transmission of infectious
matter to the food supply. In 1897
DR.. Wallace Clarke, health officer
of Utica, N. Y, traced an abnormal
ly high proportion of contagious dis
eases in the Eighth ward to the pres
ence of an unsanitary garbage dump,
upon the removal of which the death
rate was reduced to normal The
mortality from typhoid during the
Spanish war made Investigations
along these lines more general. 1t
was shown that every regiment con-
stituting the First, Second Third,
Fourth and Seventh Army Corps de-
veloped typhoid fever, and that more
than 80 per cent. of the volunteer
regiments developed it within eight
weeks after going into camp. More
than four-fifths of the total number
of deaths were caused by typhoid
fever and infected flies were directly
responsible for the spread of the dis
ease.
With the approach of the hot |
weather the mortality among chill !
dren from summer complaint" as
the annual epidemic of intestinal !
diseases is frequently termed will !
leap up from week to week. With |.
the elimination of the fly season in /,
August typhoid will begin it's annual |
ravages throughout the country. |
And, while impure water may in
some cases he the pauCa of +haco oil
ments, in the great majority of cases |
the real agent will be the ommOn /
house fly, making its deadly round |
from clubhouse and stable to the milk /
pitcher and dinner table.
Seven different varieties of flies
are found in our houses, SO per cent !
of which are represented by the COM
mon house fly. Flies lay their eggs
only in fermenting or decaying sub
stances-by preference in horse ma
nure. Hence every stable is a CEN
ter of infection unless periodically
disinfected. The fly maggot is also
Matched out in latrines and ash pit
refuse, such as bedding, straw, rags,
paper, scraps of meat, fruit, ETC., on
which substances the larvae subsist
after they hatch, which occurs in
about twelve days after the eggs have
been laid. 1t is estimated that a
single fly, laying 120 eggs at a time, |
will produce a progeny amounting to
seXtilliOns by the end of the season |
The numbers of bacteria upon a
single fly have been proved to range
all the way from $50 to 100000. |
The average for Ala flies which were