TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13212, 4 September 1908, Page 5

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Though England's offiA cial attitudo , towards Moroccan the struggle in Morocco Adventure, has been quito correct, it is stated that a band of Englishmen have been giving Mulai Hafid material assistance, on the understanding that when he comes to'be recognised as Sultan he will givo them substantial concessions. According to the "Daily Express," tho idea originated with Mr Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, who, when visiting Morocco last year, camo to the conclusion that, without European intervention of some kind, tho strugglo was likely to be very protracted since neither side could get together an efficient army. Mr AshmeadBartlett formed a syndicate to exploit the situation, and Mulai Hafid offered, in return for English assistance (of courst* unofficial) to give concessions for for the building of railways and mining development, and partial control, at least, of the Customs. There were rivals in the field, so the story goes, for these concessions are saiu to be prizes well worth an effort. There is considerable mineral wealth in the country The Standard Oil Trust, is said to have offered £200,000 cash down for tho right to build a railway in a certain district, and mining rights thero for thirty years. There was a Gorman company, said to have enough money at its disposal to rc-clothc and re-arm Mulai Hand's entire force. But the difficulty was to get in touch with Mulai Hafid. While the German and Portuguese competitors were afraid to leave Tangier and risk their lives in the interior, Mr Ashmead-Bartlett and his companions went to Fez, got into personal touch with Mulai Hafid. and clinched the bargain. Sir Ashmead-Bartlett travelled alone, aisguised as a" native. "The whole story is one of enthralling interest, and when the time comes for it to be told in full, it will add another page to the vast record of daring private enterprise by Englishmen. With this, however, we are not so much concerned as'with the probable results of the action of the party concerned. As a matter of fact, it almost seems as though they may afford the solution of more than one difficult problem. Where national interference .in Moroccan affairs was impossible, this private and unofficial intervention may have the result of laying the foundations of a strong, self-governing Morocco." Perhaps it was this British success which exasperated Germany to her latest indiscretion. _

To most people the common. The house-fly is a nuisance, but Deadly to few is it a danger. Its Fly. work in the dissemination of disease is not brought homo to us directly; we know that the mosquito is the solo vehicle for the transmission of malaria, but no such terrible charge has been proved against the fly. Vet, if we think about it, the fly is really an abomination. It comes from filth of all kinds to crawl over our bodies and oar food. If we realised what an offender it is against all ideas of cleanliness we would not rest until we had- banished it altogether. It has been well said that an abundance of flies is clear proof of some defect in our scavenging. It means that organic matter is left carelessly exposed. Tlie clemi housewife, exasperated by a cloud of flies, suffers from the uneleanliness of a neighbour or of the local authority. AVar to the death was declured against the fly at the recent Public Health Congress at Home. It was stated that tho common house-fly was a prolific source of disease. Summer illness, enteric, tubercidosis, anthrax, and ophthalmia were among the. ills the infection of which it was said to carry, nnd- one speaker described it as ,; the most dangerous animal in the kingdom." Professor Hewitt emphasised tho filth origin of flies, and urged tho destruction of all refuse. Sir James Crichton-Brovno declared that a fly could carry 100.000 bacilli on its legs. ''1 believe,' 1 he said, ''that wo shall toko our grandchildren to tho British Museum to sco a single specimen of the then extinct fly." This will seem visionary to some, but it would bo an advance no greater than what has been made from times not so very remote from us. A century and a half ago a capital city like Madrid was without any sanitary provisions of any sort; tlie entire garbage of tlie city was thrown into tho street to rot. and was not removed until it had done all the mischief possible. Such « state of things disgusts us, and our descendants will be equally shocked when they read that we ate our meals amid swarms of flies from tho dustbins and stables of a city.

When tho fly is extinct, Th© let ua hopo that the mosDeadlier quito also, will ba only a Mosquito- bad . juc-rnory. Tho mosquito is nooeiasa.ry to tho production of a whole series of diseasb.;. Most of us know of its criminality in tho matter cf makiria and yellowfever. Recent investigations have brought denguo fever and "bcri-beri into th© list of his ordures. Dr. Ayires, lecturing recently before tho Now York Academy of Medicine, declared tliat several hnmdred tboucand peopte were killed anrwal'ly through mosquito infejtiom, aiad millions injured in health. Considering th. mosquito as a destructive insect, Dr. Ayres called it the king of the insect world. Every five hundred years it had diestroyed. more human beings than the world holds today. The yellow fever epidemic in 187R coot £20,000,000. mosquito's fertility was prodigious. "Ono heakhyfavoured ipair of early Juno mosquitoes coukl start a .progeny that would rival the human population of the globe in numbers ere tlio hai-vetst moon, yet ono man with-a spade oould destroy moro prospective moaquitos in an hour than mankind numbered at any one tin.©." For all its destructiveneas, tiho mosquito is easy of conquest. "A skn at the mosquito for the moment, kerosene for the week, ditching for; a season, but reclamationi for all time," was Dr. Ayres'sadvicoto campaigners. In various parts of tho States war is being waged aga<inst the insect, for the experience of Havana showed' Americans bow suosessful could be a vigorous campaign against all breeding places. In the forty-seven years preceding 1900, there were 35,952 deaths from yellow fever in Hayana. Colonel Gorgas exterminated the disease in 90 days. Dr. Ayres declared the prevention of mos--quito inifectiom of man to be one of the simplest problems in the list of anfeotiotss diseases. .The extermination of mosquito, was wholly feasible, the methods sufficiently uitderErtood-, tho accomplishment well within the financial capacity of every -nation, yet but an infinitesimal portion of the work had been undertaken. Therefore, tho mosquito as a sanitary problem was ono of the most attructivo and urgent medicopolitical issues of hho day. It was the best known-, tho least applied, and the most promising field open to organised

medicine.