OUR BABIES

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14775, 14 October 1921, Page 3

OUR BABIES

(By Hygcia).

THE HOUSE FLY. For the pa.-l two weeks we have been dealing will) the dangers of the house fly as set forth by Dr Ghamplatoup in an address delivered in Dunedin nine years ago. In amplification of what we have already published we give a few notes and thoughts with regard to the matter. Some Notes on Dr Champtaloup’s Address. On learning how extremely prolific the house fly is, some of us might he inclined to lake a falalistic view of the situation, and comfortably resign ourselves to the conviction that we could do nothing to stem such an invading horde —that we might just take our chance. However, the lecturer clearly showed how much could be done, and was being done, in simple practical ways, especially .in the Uunted States, to combat the evil; and why not? Instances where Pests have been Mastered. In New Zealand we concluded, not so long ago, that rabbits must be 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 pest —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 drug .in the Pharmacopoeia proved anything more than a feeble palliative, especially as regards Yellow Fever; but the discovery of the fact that mosquitoes can be arrested in their breeding haunts by mere traces of kerosene placed in pools and swamps, has made localities healthy whiich a few years ago were practically uninhabitable. We have had no picturesque descriptions of the deadly ravages stealthily wrought amongst babies throughout the whole world in summer time by the agency of houseflies —nothing that strikes the imagination like the 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 the lime. Now Dr Oliver Wendell Holmes his written of fly-borne Infantile Diarrhoea or Typhoid as lie did on YcllLv Fever Dr Benjamin Rush (The leading American physician of the day) thought he had 'mastered Yellow Fever. “Thank God!” he said, “out of one hundred patients whom I have visited or prescribed for this day, I have lost none!” But he spoke too sc.on. Where was all his legacy of knowledge when the blue flies were buzzing a little inter over the coffins of the unburied dead piled up in the cemetery of New Orleans, at the edge of the huge trenches yawning to receive them? The unmasking and defeat of the mosquito is universally- regarded as perhaps the most signal victory in the modem science of the Preventive Medicine; but so far as wc and our babies arc concerned the enemy at the gale is. as Dr Champlah-up tells us, the House Fly, and wc must all make common cause against him, allowing him no breeding places near our I.nnes, and ■ ruthlessly trapping or poisoning him whenever and wherever lie gains entry. The Fly in the Milk dug.

We have reason to regard the house fly as a leading, factor in carrying the germs of various diseases, and particularly in depositing them in uur milk jugs. ' , . It was the great surgeon Sir Joseph Lister who said long ago that he knew of only one species of microbe that would not flourish and multiply with extreme rapidity in milk. He pointed out that milk might bo regarded as an ideal culture medium and breedingground for all kind of germs. In view of this and the fact that the fly, from its habits and Hie flllli in which it revels, is such a universal conveyer of all sorts and conditions of microbes one can sec how extremely important it is to keep down tlic post, and to guard specially against Die possibility of its entering the milk jug. Dr Ghamptaloup certainly brought home to all of us who had the privilege of attending ids 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 people would regard as very much more disgusting and objectionable. “Clean dirt” may contain more or less germs; but the house fly, however clean he may look, should always be regarded as having come in all probability direct from the unmentionable filth, the living germs of which he carries on his person.

Viewing the drowning fly in this light, many of us said at the conclusion of the lecture that we should never again be able to regard milk as safe and unpolluted after merely removing th e dies. Wc know better now, and wc know that, especially in the case of babies, such milk would not be entirely safe to use even after scalding it, seeing that the spores of minute organisms may survive the boilingpoint.. The Abolition of the Fly in Military Camps. The extracts wo made recently from Dr Woods Hutchinson's book, “The Doctor in War,” show how the common house fly was practically banished from tlic 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 wc must all do “our hit," 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 Hie germs of diseases, wc must never lose sight of the fuel Dial Hus is not the first lino of defence. The first line of defence against cverj form of disease and every species of microbe is Hie maintenance of a high standard of health and fitness, so that if dangerous germs do gain access lo the system, tlic cells of Hie body will lie in such good fighting form dial (hey will either prevent the microbes from making an effective landing, or will defeat them after they have become established. Good air, good food, proper exercise, and regular, healthy habiits form the ' first line of defence. This is clearly inferred in Dr Ghamptaloup s lecture.