TUESDAY, JUNE 18, 1912. A DANGEROUS NEIGHBOR.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXII, 18 June 1912, Page 4

TUESDAY, JUNE 18, 1912. A DANGEROUS NEIGHBOR.

In a great "ecord of things which happened thousands of years ago* it is written: "And there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants.* houses, and into all the land of Egypt.; the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies." Since then history has many times repeated itself more* or less in the same manner, though not, perhaps, on the same scale. Anyway, it is probably no exaggeration to say that generation tfter generation, in almost all parts of the world, whole lands have been subjected to heavy death-tolls in consequence of the prevalence and poisonousness of flies. Were it possible to collate and compare the figures it might indeed be found that flies have directly or indirectly destroyed more human life than all the wars of the world. It is certain that flies are veritable pests in many ways, which are always dangerous, and often fatal, to human life, and that they are as much so now as they were thousands of years ago. Only the other evening, in Dunedin, Dr S. T*. Champtaloiip, the District Health Officer, gave « lecture, which he entitled, "A Dangeious Neighbor—the House Fly." Ther.> were, said the lecturer, many interesting problems at which both the laboratory worker and the medical officer of healtii were working, and one of the most important of these was the question of tho carriage of infection from place to place, or from man to man, by means of insects, animals, or man himself. Man himself, though often unaware of it. harbored typhoid and dipktheria bacilli, and so infected his relatives and friends,

though he himself might be perfectly well. Cats, fowls, and dogs all played their part —the latter especially in relation to the disease of hydatids; but in that evil connection the common house-fly, said Dr Champtaloup, did not restrict its attentions to a single dis-i ease, but might be the means of spreading typhoid, cholera, tuberculosis, dysentery, infantile diarrhoea, and parasitic and other diseases. This is a fairly comprehensive catalogue, but it is far from exhausting the fly's maleficent activities, for the learned Dr Prudden, as quoted by Dr Champtaloup, observes: "It is not among lions and tigers and reptiles that we have to look for man's most destructive animal enemy. These mostly stay at home and mind their own business, and if an unwary man now and then suffers from them* it is an even chance that it is his own fault; but the house-fly wanders about and gets its objectionable person on to or into almost everything. It breeds chiefly in manure and garbage heaps. It revels in almost all those tilings which to the normal modern man seem dirty, filthy, and disgusting. Then it wanders over the food and bodies of men, women, and children whenever opportunity offers. This is bad enough, but the'worst of it is that the bacteria which are swarming in most of the stuff it eats and dabbles its body and feet in are alive, and when it feeds on infective material, which it does at every opportunity, these disease bacteria may be carried direct and in full virulence to the food and persons of the well.' 4- Surely this statement shows that if there is one duty more imperative than another on whole communities and individual households, it is that everywhere and always all concerned should refrain from practices and utterly Jestroy every species of dirt and rubbish whereby flies are brought together, and enabled to carry on their disgusting, deadly work as disseminators of disease. Dr Champtaloup urged that people should educate themselves in attention to the indisoensable details; to ensure the health of infants they should, unless the mothers were in ill-health, be fed at the breast; food should be cooked with the utmost care, and thoroughly protected from flies before and afterwards; arid, in the home and the school, children should be educated and disciplined in everything appertaining to personal and domestic cleanliness. He added, too, that all accumulations of dust, dirt, or manure should be regularly removed from the neighborhood of every dwelling-house; that, pending its removal, all refuse should be stored in properly-constructed and covered cans; and that every kind of food, especially roilk, should be protected from the contamination of flies by fine gauze or spme other suitable and effective covering. There may be those who regard these things with indifference, but such people are really enemies to themselves and their fellow-citizens, and, as neighbor?, just about as dangerous and undesirable as the house-fly itself.