The Washington herald., 1916-08-01
INSECTS AS DISEASE CARRIERS.

Each year the evidence against insects
and domestic animals as carriers Of dis
ease to man is multiplying. The editor
OF great medical Journal, in discussing
this subject, declared hat 1T would be
little exaSgeration to say that a reyolu-
ton Of our ideas as to the transmission
Of disease has taken place"
The careful housewife has always felt
the deadliest antagonism to the common
house fly, and even in the days, not so
very long ago, when this Objectionable
insect was tolerated because it was be-
heved to be necessary scavenger, the
Unborn antagonism OF the housewife gave
her no rest as long as a fly was about.
The role which the common house fly
plays in the spread of sicknes. was
firmly established during the Spanish
American war, when our men fell, not
from Mauser bullets, but from typhoid
fever and other diarrheal conditions. 1t
was at first believed that the cause of
SO much sickness was due to the drink
ing water, and then the food was blamed,
and terrible hue and cry was raised
throughout the couLsry that the rations
OF our soldiers were unfit for human con-
sumption. However, the officers drank
the same water and ate the same food,
but sickness was less among them.
How could that be accounted fort It
was found that the officers quarters
were not so much exposed to flies and
that their food was better protected from
insects. This led to rigid investigation
which disclosed the fact that the water
and the food consumed by the soldiers
were contaminated, but by the common
house fly, whose feet and legs are
svarming with thousands Of germs which
thess insects deposit on everything upon
which they alight-
Typhoid fever is being regarded more
and more each day as a rural or country
disease, and that It is brought to the
cities through contaminated water and
milk. OF course, these are not the ex-
elusive sources, but almost every epidemic
Of this disease which has been inyestigat-
ed thoroughly has been traced to a rural
district where the conditions are ex-
tremely insanitary, where flies abound
around stables, outhouses, etc, and where
no precautionary measures are taken to
prevent the spread Of sickness. An OUT
break Of typhoid fever In any community
Is now regarded as stigma upon Its
sanitary conditions.
II has been said that our war with
Spain for the freedom of Cuba was main
ly inspired by the desire Of our govern
ment to rid the island, and SO our own
shores, of yellow fever
Immediately afteS the war, therefore
when the sanitary department of Havana
was established y the United States
government, our physicians upon the
board instituted rigid system for the
determination of yellow and malaria
tevera 1t had been discovered some
years previously that both of these dis
eases are conveyed to man by species
OF the mosquito; but 1t was only after
me most painstaking sanitation had
failed. and the board directed lis entire
attention upon the mosquito as the sole
active mode of infection, that these dis
eases were controlled and practically
stamped out.
This was accomplished by thoroughly
screening the houses; the use of MOSQUITO
nets; fumisation with sulphur, and
M ssnaxs Of swa@2b The ssWp