OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 12, 8 October 1921, Page 5

OUR BABIES

(By

"Hygein.")

Published- under the auspice* ot the Boyal New Zealand Booiaty for the Health of Women and Children. "It le wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the.botTHE HOUBO FLY, • For the naati two weeks wo have born dealing with the dangers of the house fly ; as sot forth by Dr. Ohamptaloup In nn ' address delivered '.n Dunedin nine years ago. In amplification of what we have already published ye [Tiro a few notes and thoughts with regard to the matter, ! SOME NOTES ! Op. Igarninm bpw extremely prolific the hoosq fly is, some of u» migat bo inclined , to take a fftt.-illetlo view of ths situation, ! imfi eomfortably resign ourselves to the • conviction that wo could do nothing to stem such an Invading horde—that we tnighk iuat take pur chance. However, the lecturer clearly showed how much oanM bo done, and waa being done, in sininle practical ways, '.specially in the TJpited Staten, to combat the evil; and ■why not? rNBTANOES HAVE BEEN Tn New Zealand we concluded, not so long ago, that rabbits must bo allowed to breed and .spread unchecked, until we were forced to face the problem. Moreover, the fly pest is almost precisely on all fours With the mosquito peel—the pest that we now know lies behind what have been two of the greatest scourges of mankind—viz.. malarial fever and yellow fever. No arug ir the pharmacopoeia proved anything more than a. feeble palliative, especially as regards yellow fever; but the discover;- of the fact that mosquitoes can bo arrested in their breeding haunts by mero traces of keroseno placed in pools and swamps, has raAdo localities healthy which a few years ago were practically uninhabitable. Wo have had no picturesque descriptions of the deadly ravages stealthily wrought amongst babies throughout the whole world in summer time by the agency of house flies—nothing that strikes the imagination like tho vivid, panic horror of yellow fever at Panama and in the Gulf of Mexico, though the domestic fly has seemingly been claiming many more victims all tho time. No Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes has written of fly-borne infantile diarrhoea or ty phold ’hs he did on yellow fever:— ■ Dr. Benjamin Bush (the leading American physician of his day) thought he had mastered yellow fever. ‘Thank God I" he said; "out of one hundred patients whom I have visited or proscribed for this day, I have lost nonel” But he spoke too soon. Where was all his legacy of knowledge when the blue flies were buzzing a little later over the coffins of the nnburied read piled up in the cemetery of New Orleans. , at tho edge of the huge trenches ■ yawning to receive them?

Thu unmasking anti defeat of tne mosquito Is universally regarded as perhans the most, signal, victory n the modern science of preventive medicine; but so far as we and our babies are concerned the .■ enamy at the gate is, as Ur. Chumptaloup tells us, the. house fly, and we must all make common cause against him,, allowing him no breeding-places near our homes, and ruthlessly trapping or poisoning him whenever and wherever he gains entry. THE FLY IN THE MILK JUG. We have every reason to regard the house tiy as a leading factor in carrying the germs of various diseases, and particularly In depositing them in our milk jugs. It was the groat surgeon Sir Joseph Lister who said long ago that he knew of only one species of microbe that would not flour’sh and multiply witn extreme rapidity In milk. Ho pointed out that milk might be regarded as an ideal culture mcdflim and breeding-ground for al! kinds of germs. In view of this and the fact. that the fly, from its habits and the filth in which it revels. Is such a universal conveyer of all sorts and conditions of microbes one can see how extremely Important it ill to keep down the pest, and to guard specially against the possibility of its entering the milk jug. Dr. Champtaloup certainly brought home to all of us who had the privilege of attending his lecture that the familiar spectacle .of a fly or two struggling in the milk is a very much more serious matter than the presence of a considerable Quantity of ordinary dirt which most peonle would regard as very much more disgusting. and objectionable. 'Olean dirt" may contain more or less germs; but the house fly, however clean he may look, xhould always be regarded as having come In pJI probability direct from unmentionable filth,/ the living germs of which he carries on his person. Viewing the drowning fly m this light, many of us said at the conclusion of the lecture that we should never again be able to regard milk ns safe end unpolluted after merely removing the flies We Know better now, and we know that, especially in the case of babies, such milk would not he entirely <afo to use evefl after scalding it seeing that the spores pl. minute organisms may survive the Ijoiling-point. THE ABOLITION OF THE FLY IN MILITARY CAMPS. The extracts we made recently from Dr. Woods Hutchinson’s book, “The Doctor in War,” show how the common fly was practically banished from the military camps during the war. Surely, if that were accomplished, we, housewives,’ ought to be able to abolish the fly from our homes and surroundings. Of course we must all do "our bit,” because If our neighbours don’t join in the fight too it will be Impossible to win through. ’ THE FIRST LINE OF DEFENCE. While giving due attention to warding off the germs of diseases, we miist never lose sight of the fact that this is not the first line of defence. The first line of defence against every .form of disease aAd every species of microbe to the maintenance of a high standard ef health and fitness, so that if dangerous f-erms do gain access to the system, thp cells of the body ho in such good fighting form that they will either prevent the microbes from malting an effective landing, or will del1 P B a^ eti tllem u,fter they have become estabGood air. good food, proper exercise, and regular, healthy habits form the first line of defence. This was clearly inferred in ar. Uhurnptaloup s lecture.