114 THE HOUSE FLY—DISEASE CARRIER 
brought about by eating or drinking something carry¬ 
ing the bacilli. Water, milk, oysters, raw vegetables 
may and do carry them. They may be carried to food 
in other ways: by contact; by dust; and by certain 
household insects, such as cockroaches, household ants, 
and undoubtedly frequently by the typhoid fly, the 
most numerous of all household insects, and the one 
which breeds in substances which may be normally 
swarming with typhoid bacilli. 
Suspicions of the Carriage of Typhoid by Flies 
Probably the first American to point out the prob¬ 
able transference of typhoid germs from box privies 
to food supplies by the agency of flies was Dr. George 
M. Kober, of Washington, D. C. In “Report on the 
Prevalence of Typhoid Fever in the District of Colum¬ 
bia,” published in 1895, under the caption of “Chan¬ 
nels of Invasion and Mode of Dissemination,” Doctor 
Kober wrote: 
“The agency of flies and other insects in carrying 
the germs from box privies and other receptacles for 
typhoid stools to the food supply cannot be ignored.” 
On the following page he gave an account of certain 
cases on the Ivy City and Bladensburg Road, in the 
course of which he used the following words, “There 
is abundant evidence of unlawful surface pollution, 
* * * and as the germs find a suitable soil in such 
surroundings, it is possible that the flies which abound 
wherever surface pollution exists may carry the germs 
into the houses and contaminate the food. * * * 
