Flies and Disease.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 127, 7 November 1885, Page 6

Flies and Disease.

Singular as it may seem, the doctors of Spain have come to the conclusion that the great disseminators of the cholera in that country are the flies that are omnipresent, not only there but here, in the warm season. This disco /ery i3 found to be the establishment of a fact which has been well known for many years. The " New York Herald," in discussing* this subject, says that "In Egypt, where the peasants, especially children, are subject to a viciousform of ophthalmia, it is know that the disease is conveyed from one individual to another by these peats," and " the danger resulting from flies feeding on putrid bodies on a battle-field and then settling on newly-made wounds" is said to be known to all army surgeons. It seems to be perfectly well authenticated that many of the contagious diseases are carried from one place to another by the flies. It is well-known that they are by no means dainty as to what they feed upon, and after partaking of a repast with a cholera, small pox, or scarlet fever patient they are amply endowed to carry the disease to any person who is in the least predisposed to it. Instances are well known where small-pox has been conveyed by a bank note, and a book read by a convalescent scarlet fever patient h&s given the disease to children in another family months afterward. The fly is as good a conveyance for th6 germs of disease as either of these, and presents far more difficulties when it comes to the question of prevention. The bill or the book can be fumigated and the microbe rendered innoxious, but the fly will submit to no treatment ol that kind. He rides in the cars, comes in at the front door uninvited, and is at home anywhere. In one's own home there is little necessity for suffering from these pests, for a housewife of ordinary neatness will not tolerate them ; but in the cars, the office, the store, or the restaurant there seems to be little possibility of escaping the danger of their presence. There should, however, be every precaution taken in cases of contagious diseases in the summer to exclude these pests from the apartments and to destroy as many as possible of those that come in.— "Chicago News."