OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3523, 20 September 1921, Page 51

OUR BABIES.

By

HYGEIA.

Published under the auspice* of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health o! Women and Children. “It Is wiser to put up a fence at the top ot a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.” A DANGEROUS NEIGHBOUR: THE HOUSE ELY. The following is the conclusion of the report of Dr Chamntaioup’s lecture, the first part of which was given last week : FLIES AS CARRIERS OF MICROBES. Dr Charnptaloup gave several remarkable proofs of the transmission of bacteria by flies, and said that Dr Nash, in his annual report for 1909, summarised the position as follows :—- With legs, bodies, and intestines laden with putrefactive germs, these flies in the fly season swarm all over all exposed food, drown themselves in every uncovered jug or cup of milk, range over every tin of condensed milk or piece of sugar on which they can alight, each fly contributing its quota of generally unknown and often unmentionable filth, including its own intestinal evacuations, polluting human food to such an extent as in a short time to convert, for instance, milk from a wholesome food to a virulently dangerous poison.

He -next showed two slides illustrating plainly what happened when a house fly with dirty feet: walked over foodstuff on which bacteria could grow. The first showed a, Petriplate filled with nutrient gelatine upon which a house fly just from a dish of dirty water, was allowed to wander for a moment. The plate was covered and set in a warm place for three days. Wherever the fly’s feet touched the gelatine, and

where the body dragged, the bacteria grew. Ihe tracks of tile wandering fly were marked in colonies of living bacteria, many 1 1 1 0-.'lands in each. The other slide showed a somewhat similar condition, though accidentally produced. Dr Champtal'oun proceeded to discuss some disease bacteria, which flies carry and the diseases thev give rise to. Among these were tuberculosis and various parasitic diseases. MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS. One authority stated that in the United Sfntes of America .there died annually 43.090 babies under two years of age as a result, of intestinal affections due to f] loin many of the large towns of Great Britain the infantile mortality per annum was from 100 to 160 or more per 1000 babies borr.,

and infantile diarrhoea played a large part '.n this enormous waste of child life. On comparing the figures for New Zealand during the last 10 years we find that the average proportion of deaths of infants under one rear of ago to every ].OOO birth.* was 71.9. This was nine years ago, the last five y ears the average has boon under 50 per 100, while England and Wales was 109, a marked difference in our favour, and a.n indication of the better sanitary conditions under which we live. Of the total deaths under one year of age in New Zealand during the years of 1976-1910. 19.8. or nearly 29 per cent., were due to diarrhoea, these figures by no means indicating the actual number of persons attacked. Dr Newsholme medical officer to the Local Government Board, said that opened cans of condensed milk were often seen black with flip?, attracted hv tile sugar in the milk and be attributed to them a. considerable share in the causation of diarrhoea in children. . Typhoid fever was a disease upon which much investigation had been made in its relation to flies, and that insect had been found guilty up to the hilt. The excessive death rate in the camps of the American soldiers during the ' Sns.nishA merman War did more than anything els-, to call attention to the importance of the flv as a distributor of the germs of typhoid ■' orfnnetely. we now had a means of nvophviatic injection against typhoid which M.l already very considerably reduced both n '* ;ir K n-irl death raff* amonrr our soldiers m India. It. would he unwise, howe'er. to state that, the fly was the chief so-'rce of the spread of typhoid. cholera, and dysentery and diarrhoea, until w P ] la( j faoj« definitely proving it. Tim fly was certainly a factor, but proof had vet to be nrought that it was the chief factor. DESTRUCTION OF FLTEB. The last section of the address briefly dealt with some of the means for the destruction of the house fly and its haunt* In the essential matter of cleanliness com i misery legislation and inspection could play only a part in prevention. Otho*facts must be the education of the public in matters of general sanitary knowkd™ and m the importance of breast-feeding anri proper care of food, to which their Society was paying so much attention with such excellent results.. In educative measures particular attention should be directed to the school child in inculcating knowledge of matters bearing on household cleanliness. (Applause.) Attention should be given to frequent, removal of all acumukitions of V dust, or manure. All refuse should be soued pending removal in properly-con-structed covered cans. All foodstuffs n ar. ticu.oly milk, should be protected from contamination by fine gauze or other sub-st-anee It would be a good day for Dunedin when we could afford the installation oi an up-to-date destructor instead of repos.hng °ur refuse in heaps in the vicinity of he town. In conclusion, the lectureexplained several effective fly-traps and fly.poisons. He sat down amid hearty and prolonged applause. J