No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 341 



(water chemically puritied) while many Europeans drink only weak 

 wines or beers, water chemically pnrified by a small amount of al- 

 cohol. 



The rat and the mouse are dirty animals and make human food 

 dirty. We often make war against them, but because they destroy 

 food, not because they defile it. Instinctively we detect these 

 animals, and it is well, for besides making foul our food, they are 

 possible disseminators of disease. Both rats and mice, some species 

 more than others, suffer from something very like cancer, a disease 

 becoming more alarmingly prevalent, and it is well known in East- 

 ern countries that the rat suffers from the Oriental plague. Would 

 it not be well to have one or two days each year in which to thor- 

 oughly hunt out and to destroy rats and mice, on the score of 

 cleanliness? 



The housefly is a fearfully dirty creature, and there can be no 

 cleanness where it exists. People have long regarded it as a pest 

 because of its numbers and its dirty habits, but we should look upon 

 its dirty feet and dirty mouth as the means of the dangerous pollu- 

 tion of every house in the land. We have been trying to fight it 

 in the wrong manner, i. e., screening it out of our houses. The 

 place to fight it is in tlie breeding places. Screen the horse stables 

 and the manure pit, and the fly will very sensibly diminish in num- 

 bers. Porto Rico is an island of perpetual summer, and yet with- 

 out houseflies. Go there and learn how to control them. We read 

 in the Good Book that they were sent into Egypt as a punishment 

 upon the Rulers. Why do w^e have them? 



House dust and dust of cities are both unclean and dangerous. 

 In the house, dust consists of particles of the human body, of 

 clothing, of the carpets, and of the ashes from the stove or furnace. 

 Ashes have been purified by fire, and are only unsightly. The 

 others are dangerous. In towns, the dust of the streets consists 

 largely of human and animal waste, all unwholesome, and often 

 disease-bearing. Think of the fruits and berries exposed to the 

 dust of the streets, hour after hour until sold! 



I have been addressing farmers. Far be it from me to say or 

 even think that they or their families are in these matters sinners 

 above others. I do not believe for one moment the statement that 

 we often see, that the country furnishes disease and death for the 

 city. I, on the contrary, after an experience of over twenty years 

 as a health officer, fully believe that, correctly examined, statistics 

 will show that disease of all kinds abounds most where people 

 are most gathered into masses, and where they are most ignorant. 

 These are not the conditions on the farm. My experience has been 

 that it is the cities and larger towns which are the breeding places 

 of smallpox, typhoid fever, diphtheria, scarlet fever, etc., and when 

 we find these diseases out in the country, we have only to hunt long 

 enough and we will be able to trace them to some city, large or 

 small. Indeed, the time has come when this Board should ask for 

 protection against city-bred diseases. 



In the struggle after absolute cleanliness, it is well to let Nature 

 come to our aid. She cleanses through the use of sunlight and 

 fresh air. Where air and sunlight can freely enter, the sanitary 

 inspector finds but little to recommend. Too often disinfectanta 



