OCR Text |
Show FLY STANDS CONVICTED The housefly stands convicted as a disseminator of disease and a carrier of' contagion, says the Journal of the American Medical Association. Ever since the investigation of the spread of typhoid fever in the United States military camps during the Spanish War in 1898 the evidence has been accumulating, accumu-lating, until today there is no escape from the chargin ; against this tantalizing tanta-lizing insect. Eery far-reaching probe into sanitary problems- is liable to disclose dis-close conditions hitherto quite unsuspected; unsu-spected; and the indictments already brought against the house fly during the past few years charge responsibility responsibil-ity lor a long category of infections' including cholera and in various forms I of dysentery, diphtheria, erysipelas, contagious opnthalmia, cerebrospinrl : meningitis, antnrax and possibly sm.ill-I sm.ill-I pox, in addition to typhoid fever, j 'Whether all of these charges will t stand in the light of scientific investigation investi-gation remains to be seen. It is im-1 im-1 portant, not so much in justice to the accused insect as because of the.hy-gienic the.hy-gienic and preventative measures which are dependent thereon, that the questions ques-tions here raised be authoritatively settled. set-tled. In the case of typhoid the evi-' evi-' deuce appears to be complete, j Dr. Torrey of the Loomis laboratory ! of New York has attempted to supply ! facts on this question. He has examin-i examin-i ed the flies caught in the densely popu- lated parts of New York during a iiura- ber of months. The flies examined' in April and early in June were compara-; compara-; lively free from dangerous bacteria. , As the summer season advanced high ! bacterial counts began to appear and also an abrupt change in the character. The record counts came at the end of the two weeks of excessive heat in July. Some idea of the number of organ-j organ-j isms, that a single insect may carry is ' indicated by the figuies 570 to 4,400 0t)0 j contamination, and 10,000 to 23,000,000 J for the intestinal bacteria contents. I Most of the bacteria found were com-j com-j paratively harmless. This investigation, investiga-tion, however, was carried on in the crowded city, where sewers would naturally nat-urally carry off all of the most dangerous danger-ous infective matter. The Journal of the American Medical Association says that the house fly is an "undesirable citizen" in any event, so that the war of extermination already begun against it in many quarters deserves encouragement encourage-ment and support. |