204 THE HOUSE FLY—DISEASE CARRIER 
fact that there are many comparatively intelligent citi¬ 
zens who in sanitary matters have not even reached 
the grade of civilization which demands the sanitary 
privy. Stiles, in the course of his great work in the 
Southern States, has brought together some startling 
figures. He is responsible for the statement that with 
4,825 American farmhouses in six different States 
2,664, or fifty-five per cent., have no privies of any 
kind; of 2,499 houses inhabited by white people, thirty- 
five and three-tenths per cent, have absolutely none, 
and of 2,326 inhabited by negroes seventy-six and 
eight-tenths per cent, have none. And what shall be 
said of the condition of a large part—the very great 
majority—of those which do exist? The uncared-for 
privy is still a most important factor all over the United 
States, even in portions of our most cleanly cities. 
In the better class of country houses, especially in 
summer country communities of city people, efforts 
have been made to improve this condition of affairs; 
and it should be said parenthetically that the influence 
of these summer country communities of city people 
upon the general conditions of the life of the country 
people around them is of great and growing value, for 
the imitative turn of mind of the young country people 
is overpowering the conservatism of the older indi¬ 
viduals. 
But the attempts which have been made even in 
some of these summer colonies to attack the privy 
question have not been at all satisfactory. The earth 
closet has had a great vogue and still remains to a great 
