40 THE HOUSE FLY—DISEASE CARRIER 
as an average, since no larvae are found in perhaps the 
greater part of ordinary horse manure piles. Neither, 
however, does it show the limit of what can be found, 
since on the same date about 200 puparia were found 
in less than one cubic inch of manure taken from a spot 
two inches below the surface of the pile where the lar¬ 
vae had congregated in very great numbers. This, as 
stated, was in August and the height of the fly season 
had not yet been reached. Major N. Faichnie, of the 
Royal Medical Corps, in the Journal of the Royal Med¬ 
ical Corps for November, 1909, gives the result of cer¬ 
tain experiments with flies, indicating that in India he 
reared 4,000 flies from one-sixth of a cubic foot of 
trench ground. He also states that he reared 500 
flies from one dropping of human excreta. 
Further counts have been made by Dr. W. B. Herms, 
of the University of California (1910). Doctor Herms 
took four samples from different parts of an average 
horse manure pile in Berkeley, Cal. (not near a livery 
stable). The four samples weighed fifteen pounds in 
all and contained by actual count 10,282 larvae, nearly 
all of which were nearly or quite full grown. The 
weight of the entire manure pile was estimated at 
1,000 pounds, and, at the rate counted, estimating that 
possibly one-third of the pile was uninfested, the pile 
contained 455,000 and more larvae. Is it any wonder 
that flies swarm near the average stable? 
