IV 
REMEDIES AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES 
O avoid only the danger from flies, you must de- 
i stroy or protect from them all substances contain¬ 
ing disease germs. This is done in large part, so far as 
intestinal diseases are concerned, by the water-closet 
system in cities, and it may be done by sanitary privies 
in villages and country houses and in mining and con¬ 
struction camps; and also by properly cared-for trenches 
or latrines at temporary army posts. To avoid danger 
from flies in the case of lung troubles, the proper care 
of the sputa is essential. 
To avoid the nuisance of flies it becomes necessary 
practically to get rid of them, and in doing this of 
course we get rid of the danger at the same time. It 
has always seemed to the writer that the truest and 
simplest way of attacking the fly problem is to prevent 
them from breeding, by the treatment or abolition of all 
places in which they can breed. To permit them to 
breed undisturbed and in countless numbers, and to 
devote all our energy to the problem of keeping them 
out of our dwellings or to destroying them after they 
have once entered in spite of all obstacles, seems the 
wrong way to go about it. To the individual who has 
control of the grounds for some distance about his 
abiding place, the former method is undoubtedly the 
175 
