The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1911-05-18

to suppose that the germs of the bubonic
plague may be transferred by f1eas, and of typhus
fever by the body louise, but the encouragement
of the flea and the louise is by no means difficult.
Only the fly, because we treat him as friend and
brother is in position to reward us at his will
by the presentation of a package of destruction
that makes Pandora's box look like a collection
OF assorted chocolates and bonbons. He will
transmit in virulent form typhoid fever Asiatic
cholera, summer dysentery and other intestinal
diseases and even tuberculosis all by the inges-
ton of hy-specks food. Therein lies almost
all the danger. 1t will also transmit, 1t is true,
such diseases as smallpox, scarletfever measles
chicken-pox, erysipelas, and even carbuncles but
practically only by incubation that is, by depos.
1tlng the germs sore surface or on mucous
membrane.
But it is not from contact with horse manure
or ordinary refuse that the fly becomes so danger
GUS to the health of By far the greater peril
lies in the fact that it will breed in human ex
creta Because of this habit it carries the living
germs of typhoid, cholera and other intestinal
diseases to exposed food supplies, and thousands
OF unfortunates, partaking of these are laid low
TO suffer incalcuable anguish of mind and body
until natural resistance enables them to over
come the poison death intervenes
When the sum total of misery and loss which
must be laid in this connection at the door of the
mouse lily is taken into account it will readily ho
peneved that no remedy, however drastic to ra
move the cause, can justly be regarded as s,ner.
fluous. w. p0A
Dr. G. N. Kober at the governors conferenco .+
lhe White House in 1908, presented figures show
ing that the decrease in the vital assets of the
country through typhoid fever alone in single
year Is more than $35O00o,OO0 The house Hv
"hlle. not the sole carrier of the typhoid germ.
taxes SUCH an unenv1able part in it's distribution
that he may rightfully be charged with very CON-
siderable part of the loss. Add to this the dread
full toll eXacted by intestinal disorders, and the
tiny agent, like the Djinn of the fisherman's lar
set free through mans indscretion, looms more
and more menacingly until his terrifying shadow
Hills and darkens the heavens.
These the popular charges against tho fv
IN principle they are true, and the violent enthus-
1asm which greets the proposal for his extermina.
ton must be viewed with an approving >,ye Thea
smoke and the effervescence will inevitably PASS
but the solid impetus which distinguished the move.ss
ment Will remain. At the same time it is we'll to-
remember that clear, calm understanding of the
actual truth, shorn of decorative hyperbole is
more essential to the success of the crusade than
all the unreasoning zeal which distinguishes the
first rush upon the breastworks
How easily the inquirer may be led astray from
the scientific aspect of the affair is readily illus
trated Several years ago a writer in the Boston
Medical and Surgical Journal declared that GER
tain experiments seemed to offer an explanation
OF the sporadic cases of cholera occurring In New
York city in 1892, in spite of the most careful
quarantine Maddox and Simmonds fed flies with
terium from the insects so fed. We have seen
before that bacteria suffer dp1inution of their
virulence In passing through the fly. In 1892 II
cases of cholera developed in New York, the dis
ease being first brought in by steamship The
patients lived in wdelyseparated parts of the city
and had no personal association with each other.
The only striking fact common to all the cases
was that the victims engaged in some form
OF the food trade. The bacillus, when examined,
proved to be identical with that discovered on
shipboard. The physicians Investigating the
method OF infection were forced to exclude the
water supply. They also declared, after much ex-
perimentation and thought that it was incredible
that the wind had carried the germs over so great
an area in so short time. BY careful process
of elimination the guilt was brought down to the
fly, which by excreting cholera bacilli upon food
exposed In various localities, was thought to have
spread the dreaded disease.
Now mark the scientific caution of the physi