The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1910-08-27
SIX MILLION GERMS PER FLY.
One Of Natures Masterpieces For
Spreading Fatal Diseases.

VIC O1 lNdIbiS f'SSSo = ~
Spreading Fatal Diseases.
Regarded as contrivance for dis
seminating the germs of faral diseases
Si,e fly is one Of natures master.
aieces. A fairly. large bacterinm is ss
much smaller than fly than fly Il:
smaller than an elephant The mi
crobes of many Of our ordinary con
tagious disorders are a thousand
times more minute than this. The
insect, moreover, is equipped witt.
sDines, hairs, folds, cavities and pro,
jections innumerable. for microbes t.
cling to. In addition, each of its sia
little feet has the sticky pad which VIC
used to call a sucker, adhesive enough
to hold the fly on window pane, ant
therefore just the thing for picking ul
germs by the hundred. One may wei;
credit reports OF single fly, filth:
from a swill barrel and loaded will
$4,000 bacteria of one species alone
Moreover, the fly, Irving on infectel
food, takes the microbes into its oW:
digestive tract, carries them about. fc
days, and deposits tnem by thousand
in the "hy-specks." There, for eA'
ample, bacillus tuberculosis may life
TOR two weeks.
It would be bad enough if the fly
merely crawled about in the sputum OF
a tuberculosis patient or the dejectG
of case of typhoid, and then simply
infected the food on the way to their
mouths. It does worse tnan this; It
starts a culture of the deHdly germs
in the food which we eat tomorrow, and
by the time tomorrow arrives the sim
gle microbe has become thousand.
"Iere is a sample of class Of facts
which may well give pater familias
pause. At one of the Connecticut Ag-
rlcultural Experiment Stations, by way
of finding out how many bacteria fly
can transfer to milk jar, they tried
shaking up flies in steriliZed water and
estimating the NUMBERS washed on.
The record number was 11o,800,000
from Is individuals, or more than 6.
100000 apiece.
Almost overnight, we are beginning
to realize where the fly Is born and
bred, and where his travels take him,
and what is 1t lie r'nshes off into the
milk. Certain facts are coming to light
that are calculated to make the house
holder sit up and take notice. Breast.
fed babies, for instance, are exposed
to dangers through air and water, but
not through their food, and they die,
at the worst, third faster during fly
time. Bottle" babies die three and
four times faster.
But, after all, one does not need sta
tistics to make them suspicious Of the
fly, for even such painstaking studies
as that of Daniel d. Jackson, Of New
York city, who by means Of fly.traps
placed in various places, showed a re-
markably close coincidence between
the prevalence; of flies and the onset
fatal cases OF typhoid fever. The con-
yincing evidence is that flies have
been caught with the goods.
It is an old device, almost as old as
the science Of bacteriology, to let a fly
crawl about on a steriilzed plate Of
nutritive gelatin such as is commonly
employed for growing cultures OF bac-
terra. At first there is no sign; but,
after a few hours in the incubator the
insects track on the gelatin is out
lined in hourishing colonies Of mi
crobes. Virtually every time the fly
has put down one of his. six feet, he
has planted at least one germ. A
march of one inch results in hundred
vigorous cultures.
1t is pretty clean fly that does not
bear 1000 germs. A fairly dirty one
will carry $4,000. A fly just back from
the swill-pail or pig.pen, at the height
of the season for flies and germs, car
ries load approaching the record
number in a drop of city milk-and
this is we'll into the millions.-Mc-
Clure's Magazine.