The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-06-20

prec;ate That in It's Daily Rounds it
May Sep Onto the Sputum of a
consumptive or Excretion From a
Typhoid Patient.
To the Editor: That the COM
mon house fly is a nuisance
goes without saying with all
who have had their morning nap
broken by his activities. or the after
noon siesta robbed Of it's repose. The
fly also violates our aesthetic sense as
il manoeuvres over our food, and for
these reasons alone we would gladly
exterminate it. Study Of recent years,
however. has shown that these reas-
ons for wishing the fly away are in
significant as compared with other
reasons. The fly is a carrier Of dis
ease. That is, of many of those dis
eases which are contagious, common
ly known. as catching. To understand
the part that the fly plays in carry
ing these diseases. it is necessary to
have in mind both the actual cause
OF these diseases and the nature.
structure and habits Of the fly. The
diseases in question are caused by
bacteria. The bacterial theory of these
diseases. advanced some thirty years
ago, is now thoroughly and absolute
ly established. 1t has been repeatedly
proved, by placing proper bacteria in
susceptible animals and plants, that
these bacteria can make the healthy
organism sick often unto death. Bac-
terra are exceedingly small, the
smallest living things. They are
plants and measure, the ordinary
ones. something in the neighborhood
OF one-fifty t~housandth Of an inch in
length. 1t Woul take more than two
hundred of them placed end to end
to reach a distance equal to the thick
ness OF the paper which this is
printed. a half million or so could re-
pose comfortably on a dot over the
letter in this line. Though they are
SO small, they increase with such
rapIdlty that one, today, ylnay within
twelve hours, have an offspring of
more than sixteen million. they also
produce violent poisons, the most in
tense poison known to man. To their
rapid multiplication and their poison
producing power they owe their
strength. Since they are so small a
million or SO may be carried on the
feet of a fly without burdening it. So
much for the bacteria.
The habits OF the fly all know, we
nave but to watch it a to see
II Hitting higher and higher, alighting
mere and yon, stepping into everything
clean and filthy. It needs not the
imagination to appreciate hat in its
DAILY rounds it may step into the
sputum of a consumptive Or excreta
from a typhoid patient. into contag-
louS sores Or dozens of other places
or Nth and disease. From such places
II may fly to us. walk over US. dip in
10 our food and leave c~ontagion. This;
Is no mere theory because it has been
proved by experiment that the fly
can carry germs. They ave been
found on his feet. Both typhoid
peen found on the feet Of flies. More
over actual cases of disease have
many times been traced to flies.
among the diseases known to be
borne are typhoid fever, cholera, an
'hrax. ~dysentery. tuberculosis. sum-
hief d~larrhoea of infants, and the
plague. With US, of course, most Of
these disease do not come into con-
slderation. The one which is Of chief
Importance here is typhoid fever
with some emphasis on tuberculosis
II is certain that, throughout the
city. excreta and tubercula SpuSum
bearing millions and millions Of bac-
terla are lying open accessible to
ines. 1t is equally certain that flies
visit these things and that their feet
as n fly away. are laden with
mem. Any fly which We e on our
1000 has with it the possibility that
II Is bearing typhoid or tuberculosis.
In tho light of these facts the fly
must cease to be regarded merely az
d nuisance but all must recognize
mat 1t deserves the name that it is
no" coming to bear throughout the
world, namely: the typhoid fly.
T.. l.. STEVENS,
hacteriologist N. C. Experiment sta
ton.