242 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



The charge appears to be well founded, but though 

 we have no desire to whitewash him, it is right that 

 some one should act the part of " devil's advocate " 

 and point out, with a view to mitigation of penalties, 

 that his carrying of noxious germs is not done " of 

 malice aforethought," and that he would not do 

 so if the said germs were not left carelessly in his 

 way to cling to his feet. We play all sorts of tricks 

 with the laws of Nature, and when trouble comes 

 of it we try to set it right in the wrong way. Here 

 are we now founding Kill-that-Fly leagues and 

 preaching crusades against the insect, when we 

 ought to be clearing away the muck-heaps near 

 our homes in which the flies are nurtured. 



Nearly every man who owns a bit of garden 

 ground is so impressed with the necessity for 

 feeding up his plants with stable manure that he 

 has a heap handy for the purpose, and a smaller 

 heap at the roots of every rose-bush. In some 

 cases he has applied it so continuously that the 

 surface soil of the whole garden is largely composed 

 of it. Then the flies come as Nature's sanitary 

 officers and decide that it must be reduced to an 

 inoffensive condition. 



Every female fly lays about a hundred and twenty 

 eggs on it, and these hatching in a day or two, 

 the maggots set to work with all speed to reduce 

 the nuisance. In less than a week they have done 

 what they could, have become full-grown, and in 

 another week they are flies. They lay their eggs, 

 thus ensuring the continuation of the sanitary 



