Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-11-15

recent annual meeting Of the Boys
Corn club:
Let us consider first what goes to
make up the home. With the most OF
us it is a great deal more than the
house in which we sleep-the house
and it's surroundings, the barn. the
outhouses, the water supply, our hab-
its and mode Of living.
The house. The kind Of house is
not of nearly so much Importance as
it's location, arrangement, ventilation,
heating, furnishings and manner OF
keeping. There are many points to
be considered in locating the house
it's relation to the public road and the
prevailing wind is not among the least
(for we will find a little later on that
dust is a great menace to health). Our
forefathers used to put the house by
the spring and the barn on top of the
hill. Sometimes the house would be
on the hill and the spring in the cat
tie yard or pasture. While driving
through the mountains a few years
ago 1 saw such a case. The house,
outhouses and barns were on top OF
the hill, and pigs and COWS were rang
ing on the side Of hill. The spring
was a beautifully clear sparkling
spring, but there had been four cases
of typhoid fever in that family with
in less than two months. What else
could you expect?
There may be conditions rot quite
so patent, yet quite as unsanitary
We know better than to put the barn
and outhouses on a higher elevation
than the spring, but do we always re-
member that the we'll drains an area
whose diameter Is four times the deptn
of the well? Since this is true II
would appear at first glance that a
driven or bored we'll would stand the
greatest chance of contamination, Dut
these two classes of wells are walled
with iron piping which extends
through the very hard clay layer, OF
through rock, so then there Is very
little chance for surface contamina-
ton. It's the well with the leaking
wall which is dangerous, the well with
the loose rock wall or wood curplng:
The barn and outhouses are not
alone possible sources of Infection 70
the water supply, but they are the
breeding places of one of the most
dangerous enemies to human health
and life-the common house fly, or
typhoid fly, as once suggested:
Horse manure Is the favorite breed
ing place of the house fly, 80 per cent
& 4 httt
breed in COW dung, human excreta OF
in decaying vegetable matter. one
female of the house fly variety is ca
pable of laying from 120 to $50 eggs
and these eggs develop In from fve
to seven days. Now see what hosl
of enemies one female fly may bring
against us.
First. let us consider a few OF the
reasons why we should fight the ny
the common house fiy-as we would a
plague 1t has been proved beyond the
shadow of a doubt that the bacteria
of typhoid fever are present in the eX-
cretions from the kidneys and powers
of a patient, both before and after the
period Of prostration with the disease
Not only this, but person Who' MIN
self, has never had the disease may
have the germ Of typhoid In his eX-
cretions and be source or lnfectlon
to others. Since these facts are true
don't you see that to disinfect the ex-
crement during the time or disease
is not sufficient?
A fly is capable of carrying many
thousand germs. He has been bred
in this very material which is alive
with typhoid germs; he feeds upon II.
then thinks it his right to come and
inhabit our kitchens, dining rooms
and pantries. He walks over our 1000
with his germ m-besmeared feet, ano
leaves the germ-infected deposits
from his body upon our food ana
dishes. The result is we again eat
the germs of typhoid which have once
been thrown off from our own dlges-
tive tract, or that of some one else
If ones power of resistance is great
enough, the germ will be killed: II
not, there will be a doctors Dill 10
pay.
But, unfortunately, typhoid fever
is not the only disease transmitted by
the house fly. Dysentery, cnolera
morbus, summer diarrhea Of children
tuberculosis and blood poison can be
carried this way. Then why not eX-
tinguish the house fly? 1t has been
done. 1t can be done again!
The greatest enemy Of the lily is
cleanliness. / imagine / can see some
husband nodding at his better half as
much as to say, You don't keep this
kitchen clean" Just wait a minute.
How about the stable? That is where
the trouble lies. Don't give the fly
a place to lay her eggs, and they can
not hatch.
What disposal do you make of the
stable and other eXcreta and waste
about your home? Do you know that
if twice each week you would have all
manures of every kind, all decaying
vegetables and all other filth gather
ed up. put into a fly proof house and
sprinkled with chloride of lime, the
fiy on your farm would be a thing of
the past? 1t takes from five to seven
days for f1y's eggs to hatch, so If you
have spring cleaning twice a week
the eggs don't get n chance to hatch.
But the fly is not the only winged
enemy we have. There is the mos
quito which torments us so with MS
nocturnal serenades. Unlike the house
fly the house mosquito, or the culiX'
is not the one which makes us shake
and tremble in his wake. but his
cousin, the swamp mosquito, or
anopheles, who spreads malaria. Here
again the female is to blame. The
male does the singing and the female
does the biting. She enters the house
about sundOwn or later and, unless
leaving before morning, seeks a dark
corner in which to spend the day.
I am fully aware of the fact that
here in this audience there are men,
intelligent men too, who will take IS
sue with the scientists of today as TO
the mode of spreading malaria, but
these men have never seen the little
animal-plasmodiu malariae, we call
him-living and growing in the red
cells of mans blood. Neither nave
they seen the same little animal living
and developing in the salivary gland
of the mosquito. Scientists have spent
years in the study Of this little animal
and his habits. He could be watched
only by the aid of the microscope but
he was watched. :.
You would think it criminal TO SIT
bv and see your child cut one OF ms
arteries and not try to keep him from
bleeding to death, yet how many OF
US do all in our power to Keep the
plasmodium malariea from destroying
the very blood of this same child
Do YOU know that when the malaria
plasmodium is introduced into your
body that it Immediately takes up us
abode in one of the red blood cells
that it begins to grow and when 1t mas