The Ely miner., 1913-08-29


the local sanitary authorities can be
forced to do it.
But flies still exist i'll many towns
and villages because neither the
public nor the local inspectors rea-
lie their danger. and because the
laws and bylaws are not therefore
enforced in their entirety. The
result is flies, disease, and death.
But more careful administration
and a better organization should
give fewer flies, less disease, and a
falling death-rate; and these at a
very slightly increased cost or rails
ing of the rates.
Just before this chapter was
written, the writer had occasion to
visit one of the cities of South Wales
to make some inquiries concerning
an infantile disease which had
broken out there. One of the staff
of the health Office happened to
mention that as the spring had been
warm and dry an increase in the
infantile mortality was soon to be
expected. We visited some of the
slums of the town. and he entered
a dairy shop to use the telephone.
The shop was very clean, and the
milk, cream, cheese, looked fresh
and palatable, the tables and uten-
sils were glazed and covered. But
on the window-pane and on the
edges of milk-jug were ten house
flies, and on cheese-plate were as
many more-there can be little
doubt about the expected increase
of the mortality. At the back of
that creamery there was the dairy
man S stable, and here in the man
ure were the house-flies and some
blue-bottles breeding. The manure
had been removed regularly every
few days, but the horses bedding
had not, for it was used over and
over again; here the fy-larv9
throve.
The question arises as to the
most convenient way of dealing
with the horses bedding in the
stable. The owrers of such horses
naturally object to supply fresh
bedding in the stable every week;
it is very expensive, they say
Yet the tradesman has clean bed
ding for himself every week at least
and it seems hard on the horse that
it should not be treated in the same
way as his master. However the
question of expense is there. The
remedy lies probably in cleansing
the bedding once a week. freeing il
from manure, and destroying the
fly-larve with petroleum or chlor-
| ide of lime. Once every week.
certain day should be chosen-the
stables and loose boxet should be
cleaned out. The manure and re-
fuse should be separated from the
straw and disposed of as usual, in
accordance with the instructions
and usages of the local sanitary
authority concerned; the bedding
should be carefully spread out over
the cobble-stones in the yard and
allowed to dry thoroughly. With
a pitchfork the manure can be sep
arated, and then any hy-larva de-
stroyed with a little paraffin oil
it requires but a little-obtained
from the grocer.
| If this was done by every keeper
of horses. COWS, sheep, and goats
regularly and carefully once every
week-at a definite hour on chos,
en- day--there would be no flies,
the milk and the children's food
would not be contaminated, and
then there would be less infant
mortality.
This description sounds worthy
of senitary Utopia; it seems more
easily described than done. For
example. who is going to see that
the dairyman cleans his stable once
week, and who is going to see
that all stable owners do the samel
Suppore they object. What then!
Perhaps there are huadreds OF
thousands of fy-breeding places tc
be dealt with.
But it can be done. At Port Said
the mosquito brigade dealt with
5000 houses every week. including
400 flooded cellars. and the mos
quito-breeding places were sought
out and dealt with regularly once
every week. AS result the mos
quito disappeared If this can be done
at Port Said it can surely be done
at home. 1t is just as easy to deaI
with flies as it is with mosquitoes
This is the real work of the sani.
tary authority. 1t must be done
sooner or later, so why delay? Let
the medical officer give the com,
mand that flies must be abolished
or so reduced in numbers that the
town is almost free from them; and
let him see that the command is
obeyed. Then the sanitary iaspec-
tors, the inspectors of nuisances
the scavenging service will realize
that crusade against the pest is
to be undertaken in earnest. An
anti-fycam paign must be institut
ed. And it should not be left to
individuals, but must be carried
/ out at the bidding and kent III