THE STABLE FLY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 205, 18 January 1913, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE STABLE FLY

NEW MENACE DISCOVERED. The discovery of the mosquito as a bearer of malaria and yellow fever has permitted a rapid step forward in the sanitation of tropical countries, and repeated warnings have also pressed home the disease possibilities of the house fly. It has remained for the stable lly to be suspected, at least, of bearing a disease more dread and mysterious than any of the foregoing. In studying the surroundings of numerous cases of infantile paralysis, Mr. C. T. Brues, assistant entomologist of the Bussey Institution. Harvard University, and Dr. P. A. E. Sheppard. of the Harvard Medical School, have found that the outbreaks of the disease, and the breeding habits of the stable fly are practically coincident. The disease in o-eneral. most common in rural districts, is not contagion*. and is so sporadic in occurrence that it seems as though it must be due to an insect, carrier. Specimens of the lly have been collected on New England farms where infantile paralysis has occurred, and Messrs Brues and Sheppard have of late been experimenting with them in order to definitely determine whether they are the bearers of the diseases. The only animal that has the disease in the same form as man is the monkey, and it is with these animals that experimentation is being carried 01).

As a sequel to the disease on several farms, a peculiar form of paralysis in swine and horses lias been found. It is unknown to all the veterinarians wlio have been called upon, and very probably is a form' of the disease in question." .The animals are occasionally affected fatally, but it usually produces a paralysis of the hind parts that may persist for life. It is stated that this condition in animals that have recently borne young is commonly attributed to parturition troubles, but very probably the difficulty lies in some form of the paralysis under discussion.