Show COMMON HOUSE HOUSEFLY I flY DANGEROUS No fo Longer Regarded by Scientific Scientific Scientific Men as a Harmless Insect CARRIES TYPHOID GERMS FACTS LEARNED DURING THE WAR Washington Sept 36 Following the is issuing Issuing issuing suing of a bulletin on the havoc that the rat Is working in the United States and the menace which the rodent Is to the health of the communities where It con congregates congregates congregates in large numbers the depart department department department ment of agriculture has issued I a report on the economic loss to the people of the country through insects that carry disease germs Among this class of pests the common house fly fl is described as the chief offender The department has in its report given ven a new name to the fly which is called the typhoid fly It has been definitely definite proven and is isnow Isnow isnow now generally accepted by scientists that the mosquito known as M calo cab pus is the disseminating agent for yellow ellow fever The common house fly fh Is now branded as the greatest agent for the spread of typhoid fever Carries All Al Kinds of Germs While Thile the flys activity in disseminating disease is chiefly ny confined 1 to the spread of typhoid the insect does not confine itself to any particular bacteria but car carries carries cariles ries iles around with impartiality the germs of many man other deadly maladies It is a distributor of the germs of Asiatic chol era and many other intestinal diseases The fly continues the report is also strongly suspected of carrying infection of the bubonic plague a dis disease disease disease ease prevalent in the Nile basin is un undoubtedly undoubtedly spread by the swarms of flies that cover Egypt at certain seasons of the year ear like one of Pharaohs plagues A similar disease is conveyed by the fly in the Fiji islands Pink eye ee in the southern states is spread by certain species species species cies of fly The common house fly is known to be the chief cause of the ter terrible terrible terrible sleeping sickness in Africa The in insect insect Insect sect is a big factor in spreading tuber tuberculosis tuberculosis also Information as to the dan danger danger danger ger of allowing the fly to survive has grown glown enormously in the past few years and ard the fact that the insect should be destroyed wherever found is becoming generally known in the United States Not only is there great loss ls In human life from the activity of the fly in spread spreading spreadIng spreading ing disease germs of all kinds but the resulting economic loss is staggering Says the departments report on the fly Deadly House Flies People have too long considered the house fly a harmless insect or at most simply a nuisance Scientific research has shown that it is a most dangerous in insect Insect insect sect from the standpoint of disease and while popular opinion is rapidly being educated to the same point the retention of the name fly is considered inadvisable as perpetrating in some degree the old ideas itS regarding the insect The name typhoid fly fl is here proposed as a sub substitute substitute substitute for the name house fly fl now in general use Anybody A n body who reads the report of the th department on the typhoid fly fl will it they have the slightest regard for health wage war on the creature wherever found The true connection of the typhoid fly with typhoid fever and the scientific evi evidences evidences dences regarding it as a carrier of that disease have only recently been established established blatted Professor Celli in 1588 l S fed flies files with pure cultures of ot the typhoid bacillus and afterwards examined them micro microscopically microscopically Inoculations of animals were made from the contents of the flies atom stomachs stomachs achs ache These experiments proved conlu conclusively that the typhoid bacilli which passed d through th the flies files fl were ee active ac I and virulent Dr Jr George M I Kober Koner or Wash Yash Washington Washington ington D B C a scientist of repute in his report on the prevalence of typhoid fever in the District of Columbia calls special attention to the danger of con contamination contamination contamination of food supplies by flies files that have been in contact with typhoid fever patients pat Experience in War Time During the war flies it was afterwards discovered covered dl were chiefly responsible for the prevalence of typhoid fever in the various concentration camps of the army arm the largest ones being lo 10 located located at Chickamauga Park Tenn and at Tampa Fla At both of these camps especially at Chickamauga typhoid fever killed or 0 invalided hundreds of previously healthy soldiers This was in the sum summer summer summet mer met of 1908 The deaths became so fre Ire frequent frequent quent that even at that time army of officers titers were waking up to the danger of not checking the numbers of flies and guarding against them A board of army arm officers was appointed during the sum summer summer summer mer headed beaded by Dr Walter Valter Read Rend a well known surgeon sur eon The board made a re report report report port the gist of ot which was that the fly undoubtedly served as a carrier of the typhoid infection Typhoid at Chickamauga At the Chickamauga camp where at atone atone atone one time more than soldiers were stationed flies existed In millions They swarmed over the Immense amount of camp refuse matter and then visited and fed on the food prepared for the soldiers at the m ss tents In many Instances where lime had been sprinkled over refuse dumps the Insects were observed with their feet whitened with lime walking over the food on the tables 1 The fly carried the typhoid bacillus In Inthe i ithe the tho camp In two ways The Tho germs were IF either transported to the food by adhering adherIng adhering ing to the insects bodies and then brush brushing brushing brushing ing off into the food by bv contact with it or the germs were carried in the diges digestive dl digestive s tive the organs of or the flies and deposited on the food fowl It was noticed that tents where meals were served if protected by hy screens lost very few men from ty typhoid typhoid typhoid fever who at there thereAbout thereAbout thereAbout About this time physicians and selen scientists scientists were disputing over the cause of the spread pread of typhoid fever in the camps Some of them declared that the fever was of miasmatic origin Few thought at atthe atthe atthe the time that the epidemics of typhoid could be directly traced to the fly A few held to the theory theor of the cause of the disease contending that typhoid was mainly caused by b the germs gaining entrance to the bodies of the victims in some mysterious manner and there ripen ripening ripening ripening ing until the disease was strong enough to seize its human prey in its grip Report of Army Board As soon however as the report of the army medical board was made all argo argument argument ment meat and speculation on the cause of the disease that was slaying the soldiers by hundreds ceased The opinion was unanimous that the common house fly was guilty It was too late however when this was finally agreed upon to take steps to save the lives of hundreds of soldiers who might otherwise have lived lIed if knowledge concerning the flys con connection connection connection with the disease had been known It is estimated by b the scientists of the department of agriculture that uncounted thousands of persons perish each year In tn Inthe inthe the United States from typhoid fever a great part of the deaths being traceable directly to the house fly The bulletin giving this information will be generally disseminated throughout the country In Inthe n the hope that municipalities will become alive to the menace of the house fly anti and take measures to exterminate the Insect as far as may be possible |