The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1909-08-20
THE FLY AT THE BAR
printed by Request.)


by a court from which there is 10 ap-
peal. Health and archaeological ex-
perts all over this country have pro-
nounced the verdict guilty. Whereas
the fly was once considered a scav-
enger sent in hot weather to eat up
the germs that abound, it is now con-
sidered filthy insect. Bred in ma
nure, it drinks from cess-pools and
dimes in privy-vaults. 1t eats the spu-
tum on the sidewalk and revels in the
garbage-pail 1t hovers over the ba-
by's diaper and is greedy for the
dressings from a discharging wound.
1t is a germ-carrier. 1t brings typhoid
fever, diarrnoea, dysentery and tuber-
culosis to the very gateway of the hui
man body. After its repast of filth it
crawls over your freshly-frosted cake,
swims in your lemonade, cleans its
feet on the bread bought in a sealed
paper bag. Direct from the neighbor-
ing privy, it crawls over the sweet
lips of your sleeping baby or settles
on the sterilized nipple of its nursing
bottle. The fly that you fish out of
your baby's milk, milk for which you
have paid fifteen cents a quart, may
have been feeding on the eXcrenent
of a patient recovering from dlar-
rhOea or typhoid fever. The flies on
the fruit you buy at that street corner
for your children may have last fed
on the sputum of a consumptive. AS
many as six million, six hundred
thousand bacteria have been found on
a single fly. Yet the house-fiy is tol-
Grated everywhere.
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 fly cages made in
different parts of New York City by
the Merchants Association shows
that flies were active in large rum
bers only IN the comparatively few
hot weeks in summer, while the
health certificates 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 the
prevalence of flies and fell with the
decrease in the numbers of flies trap
ped. When we consider one fly, lay
ing one hundred and twenty eggs al
time, will have a progeny of sextiI.
lions at the end of the season, and
that milk is the best germ-culture
known, it is easy to see the fy'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 square yard keeps the flies
out. Keep flies away from your baby.
Keep flies off your food and milk. DO
not buy fruit exposed for sale un-
screened. Don't forget that the
breeding-place of flies is in nearby
filth. 1t may be behind the door, uH-
der the table, or in the cuspidor. If
there is a nuisance in the neighbor-
hood, report it at once to the health
department and demand it's abate-
ment.
Every health department should
distribute pamphlets warning the pep
pie of the danger where flies lurz.
Health inspectors should visit all s,a-
bles and filthy places, and give in
structions as to how to keep flies
from filth and how to destroy their
eggs. Nurses and social health visit
Ors should teach the dangers Of in
faction through flies, and the use of
screens.
Do not think that because you do
not live in large cities this does not
affect you. Because the house-f1y is
so common, it is so dangerous. You
can make it as rare as the yellow-fe-
yer mosquito today.-The Delineator