TOE ROUSE-FLY'S MISSION.

Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 39, 14 May 1907, Page 5

TOE ROUSE-FLY'S MISSION.

Tbe common house-fly h.. * partP cular mission to fulfil which is that: of scavanger. When the fly i* hovering apparently aimlessly around Hi room it is searching for, and devour-' ing more or less harmful bacilli (the 1 übiquitous microbe, in other words), which, as is well known, is always to be found floating in the air, oa invisible particles of dust in a warm impure atmosphere. When a large number of flies are seen at one time in an apartment, it should be read' as one of Nature's danger signals, and the ventilation should be improved at once.

Certainly the fly avoids fresh air, and low temperature, because there is usually no work for him to do under those conditions.

When the fly settles upon one’, skin, say where the "thatch is thin,” his object is not to annoy one as much as possible (if his feet tickle, that is not his fault), but to remove some more or less harmful matter. If the said spot, and, of course, th, whole of one’s skin, is sufficiently frequently washed with carbolic soap, the harmful matter will not exist, and the fly will not alight there, because the odour of carbolic soap (not) sufficiently pronounced to be perceptible to the human sense of smell)' will assure him that his presence on that particular spot is not retyuired.