Taranaki Herald. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1910. THE “TYPHOID FLY.”

Taranaki Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 14345, 25 October 1910, Page 2

Taranaki Herald. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1910. THE “TYPHOID FLY.”

With the advent of warm weather the common house fly is beginning to make its presence felt. Ordinarily it is regarded merely as a troublesome pest, little-attention being paid to the fact that it is a common carrier of disease, especially of typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, and other intestinal diseases, as well ns of tuberculosis and certain eye diseases. This fact is beingbrought prominently before tho notice of tho people of the United States of America, where Dr. Howard, chief of the Bureau of Entomology, has been investigating the economic loss sustained through insects that carry disease. , He proposes to substitute the name of “typhoid fly” for that of “house fly, because people have for too long considered the creature a harmless one, or at most simply a nuisance, whereas scientific research has shown it to be a most dangerous creature from the standpoint of disease. It has been found that a single fly may carry as many as 6,600,000 bacteria, and it is rather startling to think that a person who drinks a glass of milk into which a fly has fallen may take into his system millions of the bacilli of typhoid, dysentery, or tuberculosis. In the village of Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago, a determined effort is being made to exterminate flies, and the plan of campaign is described by Greo. P. Cheney in the Technical World Magazine. The first point of attack is the stables, where most of the flies are bred, and here the use of tight boxes or screens for the refuse is insisted upon, and all refuse is removed at least once a week. The police have instructions to use their eyes and noses in a search for garbage, which is destroyed in a crematory. The Department of Health of tho City of Chicago issues a poster warning people of the danger of allowing flies to breed and advising them of the best means of getting rid of the pest and of keeping it at bay. It is unpleasant to read that flies are carriers of millions of death-dealing disease germs and that they leave some of these germs wherever they alight, that they may infect, your food and thus give you fever or tuberculosis. The last appearance of typhoid fever in Oak Park was when twenty-five cases appeared almost simultaneously in twenty-two .households in one locality. The water was first suspected, but the whole town used the same water supply. Then attention was directed to the flics, and it was ascertained that eighteen of the twenty-two households attacked had bought celery some two weeks earlier from a grocer. Further inquiry elicited the fact that the celery came from a place where typhoid had been epidemic, ami the case against the flies was fairly established. For two yours Oak Park has been free from typhoid. The people are warned against allowing filth or decaying matter of any kind to accumulate on or near their premises, to keep garbage receptacles tightly covered and emptied and cleaned at least once a week, to burn all refuse; in a word, to observe the utmost cleanliness, since—no dirt, no flies. To get rid of flies the use of fly papers and traps is recommended, but perhaps tho simplest and most effective means

is the use of formaldehyde. Two teaspoonfuls of weak formaldehyde, in a pint of water, placed in shallow vessels about a room, will attract the flies, which drink and die at once, the fluid disinfecting as well as killing them. But to be thoroughly effective the warfare against flies must be systematic. It is of little use killing the flies in your own place if for every one you kill a hundred come over the fence to attend the funeral. What is required is action hy the health authorities, to instruct people as to the dangerous nature of flies and the means of getting rid of them, and to enforce cleanliness in the streets and public places, as well as the use of safeguards in protecting foods exposed for sale from flies.