The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-04-30

only an indirect part, in that it is most
favorable to bacterial growth and to
flies. IL is significant that the cool
weather of late summer do" not ma
teriallv decrease infant mortality while
flies abound
Experiments Are Made
"1n 1899 series Of experiments on
the subject of infection through the
agency of flies was conducted by
Sawtchenko with pure culture of chol
era bacilli. The bacill, fed to two
kinds of flies. were found AS late as
four days after injection; removed on
the third day and inoculated into guinea
pigs, they were found to he as active
as the pure culture themselves. Simi-
lar results were obtained, when. instead
of pure culture, the disc harges of chol-
era patients were employed as feeding
material. Some of the experiments in
dicated that the bacilli probably mul-
tiply within the fly. which thus acts as
n breeder and distributing agent at
the same time. Surgeon General Sir
William Moore drew attention in 1898
to the fact that. in India, flies abound
most extensively during the time and
season Of greatest prevalence of chol-
era An instance OF strong presump-
tive evidence of an outbreak of cholera
y
by Buchanan. who relates that in June.
1896. nine cases of the disease occurred
in Burdman Jail, where, prior to and
after the attack, there was exceptional
freedom from bowel complaints. The
water supply was above suspicion and
was the same for all the inmates. who
numbered 100, and were divided into
two two groups, the ordinary prisoners and
a.. f.1 nj
with the former. but their food was
cooked especially and they were fed
in n separate place in the hospital com
pound, The ordinary prisoDers-and it
was among these that all the eases oc.
curred-had their food prepared and
were fed at the extreme opposite cor
ner, diagonally from the hospital. Over
the wall at their corner were "A de-
serted compound, and row of dirty
nuts where cholera had existed during
the preceding year AT the time the
city was more than usually infected
with swarms of flies, and Just before
the outbreak storm had occurred,
during which q strong east northeast
wind blew across the jail yard from the
locality mentioned. All who were
seized were among those who were
known to have had their evening meal
in the corner during the storm and it
was believed that swarms of flies were
blown from the huts, and on reaching
the trees and corner Of the high jail
wall, obtained shelter from the storm
and settled upon the food exposed on
the plates before the gang, All had
been in 'ai! more than a month, and
conditions were identical for each.
The ability of flies to infect food
with cholera germs was shown by Ut
felman in 1892. He allowed cholera
inf foc cd fl,y TO 1rin oil ~
sterile milk and then shook the latter
and kept 1T at 10 degrees Fahrenheit
for sixteen hours, at the end Of which
time each drop contained about 100
organisms,
The presence Of plague bacilli in the
intestines Of flies has been demon
strated repeatedly within recent years,
first by Yersln in 1894. who, noticing
the large number Of dead flies where
crushed one fly and inoculated it into Il
guinea pig, which died of the disease
in forty eight hours, Further investi
cation showed the bacilli present in the
intestines of the living fly and led to
the conclusion that they actually mul-
tiplied therein. Nuttall proved that
flies may carry the disease and that
they themselves die of it. 1t is inter.
esting to note that early writers were
suspicious OF the house1ly ana SO long
ago as 1877 a Venetian, Murcurialis,
wrote C'De Pestilentia y that "flies go
to infected houses, alight upon the sick
and then convey the contagion to other
houses and deposit II on bread and
other foods {"Practical Hygiene
Harrington.)
Yaws, a contagious disease Of the
skin, occurring in hot regions and
marked by raspberry-hke excrescences
on the face, hands and feet, has been |