Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-04-26

be THE lion," or "the Rattlesnake.
But it would be far from the truth
The lion always gives warning growl
before springing, while the snake
sounds its rattles before striking. The
really most dangerous animal comes
upon its prey in a rambling, genial
way, flying the flag Of sociabilty. 1t
Is the housefiy.
1t was suggested by Doctor Nicho-
las in 1878 that the housefiy carried
disease but only in the last few years
has the accusation been proven. Un-
til recently we have been thinking OF
1t purely as scavenger, while instead,
IT was laying us low. For each time
the fly scavenges it strikes thousand
blows.
Xerxes's army looked like a scout
ing party in comparison with the
hordes of the housef1y. Their name Is
legion, and their recruiting powers
are wonderful. The average female
fly lays between one hundred and one
hundred and fifty eggs. but many are
more prolific. In fact fly under OBJ
servation at the state agricultural sta
ton at Storrs, Connecticut, laid one
hundred and twenty eggs In fourteen
hours 1t takes ten or twelve days for
an egg to develop into a fly, which
means that a dozen generations can be
born in a single season. This again
means that female fly, with luck on
it's side, beginning in the spring, may
by mid-autumn be the progenitor or
1876. 95.312,500,000 flies. These figures
are as confusing as a national debt,
but. simplified, they mean that, allow
ing a million flies to the bushel, there
would be 195,OO0,000 bushels Of flies
all "relatives'-with a few wagon
loads thrown in for good measure.
Fortunately this number does not
survive. Limitation in the food supply
sounds the call for most Of them;
varying temperature carries off many
more. and a certain fungous disease
mows swaths in their ranks. 1t seems
too good to be true, but flies really
have diseases of their own and they
have natural enemies. The household
myriapod, or centipede, obligingly
makes away with many Of them, and
spiders do not spin their webs for
nothing. Nevertheless, there is for
tune awaiting the scientists who can
devise a method which will extermi-
nate the fly.
There are many kinds of flies but
the common housefly is the worst be-
cause 1t sticks closest. is ever alert and
always ready to swoop down upon us
at a moments notice. The housefiy
can be told from its relatives by
ing you will find the housetiy with
head pointing down, while the other
varieties retire with their heads up.
This, however, is only local eccen-
tricity and when you are making away
with them you need not show any par
tiality, for they are all bad.
The indictments against the fly are
startling. When the epidemic of ty-
phOid broke out in the American army
during the late trouble with Spain the
source of the contagion could not be
discovered. The food and water sup
plies were examined and shown to be
creditable; 1t was a mystery until Sur
geon General Sternberg began to sus-
pect the flies. An investigation show
ed that disease was due to the trans
mission of bacteria from the refuse
pits to the mess-tentS which were not
screened. In that war flies killed four
men to every one slain by Spanish
bullets. The Japanese profited by our
experience in their campaign against
Russia, giving no quarter to the flies,
with the result that they lost four
men by wounds to one by disease.
Now when a nation goes to war the
first enemy it opens fire on is the fly.
The ways of the fly are devious
For it's size, ii is the best Cor worst)
animal known for carrying disease
germs. The mosquito has bad repu-
tation. but it is not so versatile as the
ordinary housefly. The mosquitoes s
specialty is malaria, while fly distri-
butes Asiatic cholera, typhoid, dysen-
tery. tuberculosis, ophthalmia and
even smallpox AS science gets better
acquainted with the fly it may find 1t
guilty of even worse things; as 1t is'
there is enough evidence to convict.
fly is a kind of bacterial parcels
post; the fieaS on the proyerbial dog
are few and far between in compari-
son with the germs on a fly. A fly
with only a thousand germs may call
itself clean. Recently the station at
Storrs examined four hundred and
fourteen flies just to find out for how
many bacilla the average fly Is a carry
all. The fly that stood first had $780,
600 germs on 1t, but it had some close
competitors. Four hundred of the
flies scored more than 1,250,00O each,
all Of these flies being picked up at
moments notice and thus had not in
any way been especially exposed.
Dip a fly into a cesspool and then
let il walk across a gelatine plate and
it will blaze a trail of 10000 or more
bacteria. No wonder 1t is that flies
are the greatest criminals at large and
that every possible means is being ex-
erted to lessen their number.
Health officers in the United States
are waking up to the enemy within
their gates and are beginning to ask:
why is typhoid fever?" And soon
er or later in most of the investiga-
tions the accusing finger swings
around to the housefy. In the state
of Washington nine per cent OF the
deaths have been due to typhoid fe-
YER, being exceed by only one disease
tuberculosis For five years. be-
tween 1903 and 1908 study of the
conditions of typhoid was made by the
state board OF health and it was found
that the disease was very low in the
spring. If it were distributed by in
fected water a large number of cases
would occur i'm the spring, when rains
and melting snow flush sewers and
rivers. In 1908 North Yakima had
twenty deaths from typhOid-a NOR