Show SCREEN YOUR DOORS this Is the beginning of the fly season and our injunction to all is screen your doors and windows the fly is alie greatest conveyor of disease known A prominent doctor says to those who have studied the distribution trib ution of he casca of typhoid fever it soon became evident that the number viar greatest in those streets where removal of sewage Is most imperfect now if is any causative relation between the condition and the distribution of cases of typhoid fever the agency of flies at once suggests itself as a factor the concentration of the epidemic cannot be explained by contamination of the drinking water or food the importance of alie common house ny in the spread of typhoid infection was emphasized by majors heed vaughan and shakespeare in their report on the origin and of typhoid fever in united states military camps during the spanish war in 1898 they state that in many of the camps flies were undoubtedly the most active agents in the spread of typhoid fever flies alternately visited and fed on the infected fecal matter and the food in the mess tents more than once it happened when ilmo bad been scattered over the fecal in the pits flies with their feet covered with lime were seen walking byor the food typhoid fever was much less frequent among members of mosses who had their mess tents screened than it was among those wh 0 took no such precaution typhoid fever generally died out ina the fall of 1898 in tho camps at and meado wath the disappearance pe arance of the fly and this occurred at a time of year when in civil practice typhoid fever is generally on the increase the first pits at knoxville contained before the first twenty four hours had passed after the arrival of the troops fecal matter infected with the typhoid bacillus files swarmed everywhere instead of abating the disease increased the troops were using the same water used exclusively by the inhabitants of west knoxville and among the latter there was not at that time a case of typhoid tover certainly the disease was not disseminated through the drinking water that this method of infection has so long been neglected Is a matter of one wondern that the subject did not force itself on the attention of tho medical profession long ago insects become carriers of infection by coming in contact with infectious material which adheres to their bodies or by eating it and later depositing the living organisms in their the infection Is conveyed directly or is deposited on food in the case of direct infection the insect may simply come in contact with an exposed surface or introduce tho infection by biting it needs little imagination to follow the train of events when wo see spreading through an or anan asylum during the summer months when the place is full of files and the little inmates are too young to brush them away from their eyes A visit to almost any dairy will show that the place even when well kept Is not screened from insects that milk contains dead and dying files which have just come from off the dung heaps or from the country privy vaults the dairyman strains abo alleg out but by that time the evil has been done and the culture medium inoculated fruit stands bakeries candy shops butcher shops are all usually open to the visits of flies which have just risen from manure heaps decaying garbage and even deposited in alleys and vacant lots this is not a matter of speculation and probability but of actual demonstration the most common mode of infection by insects in our part of the world is undoubtedly by the indirect method tho infection of foodstuffs by which have come in contact with infected material cholera typhoid fever tuberculosis and perhaps dysentery are the diseases which are probably moat often conveyed in this way most important for us is the connection between flies and typhoid fever and probably dysentery the i common house fly Is the insect chiefly to be dreaded for it has a far wider range of activity than has any crawling insect and afta ifta presence is not regarded as a disgrace to a well conducted household or institution as is the presence of other insects the conclusions clu are almost too obvious to need statement rapid disposal of all infectious material and scrupulous care in tho extermination of all in sects especially the common house fly should be among the moat ordinary rulea ot household and institutional hygiene |