34 The Ottawa Naturalist. [May 



be burnt in public and municipal destructors, and it should be 

 made compulsory to keep refuse receptacles closed, and 

 consequently fly-proof. The alternative, to render such nuisances 

 innocuous, can be accomplished by the provision of darkened 

 fly-proof pits or chambers for the reception of stable refuse, to be 

 frequently and periodically removed. Flies may be prevented 

 from breeding in such refuse by treating it with such substances 

 as chloride of lime or kerosene. By scattering chloride of lime 

 over the refuse after each addition in the closed chamber, or 

 spraying with kerosene (which is not so effective), the flies are 

 prevented, should they have access, from breeding in the 

 excremental or vegetable refuse. But the removal method is the 

 most successful wherever it can be accomplished ; and in the case 

 of small stables this is not impossible. 



These may seem somewhat Utopian suggestions, but 

 success has followed their adoption, and drastic initial 

 measures are essential if it is desired to reduce, so far as 

 is humanly possible, this evil in our midst. Until such 

 measures are adopted the public must hold the offending 

 parties responsible for the dangers resulting from the germ- 

 carrying powers of the house-fly ; and it is no small matter to be 

 responsible for an unnecessarily high and reducible infantile 

 mortality, not to mention the increased possibility of the rapid 

 spread of outbreaks of typhoid fever, to which new and rapidly 

 growing cities are especially liable. In houses it is not sufficient 

 to provide fly screens to windows and doors, but such foods as 

 milk and sugar, to which flies are especially attracted, and which 

 are more than usually suited for the reception of whatever germs 

 they are carrying, should be carefully covered with muslin. A 

 fly should be regarded in its true light as a wdnged carrier of 

 disease and decay. The sooner this is realized the more speedy 

 will be the advent of more healthy and less dangerous conditions. 

 Time was when the fly acted as a scavenger, its larvae destroying 

 bv disintegration decaving substances. Its function has now 

 been superseded by health and sanitary authorities, and now its 

 sole function is that of a danger signal. Wherever flies abound 

 in such places will refuse and decaying substances be found, and 

 on such occasions it will serve as a disseminator of the germs 

 which are associated with such substances. If w^e are to reduce 

 the mortality from these infectious diseases and make our towns 

 and cities more healthy, the house flies must be reduced. The 

 time is past when these ideas were considered the alarmist 

 croakings of scientific cranks: we have the facts before us which 

 condemns in no unmeasured terms this most serious pest the 

 common house-flv. 



