HOUSE FLY. 83 
in great numbers, and following their instincts of flying upwards, they 
rise (when they have fed sufficiently) to the pointed top of the lower 
glass, where, finding an open hole, they go through, and are secured 
in such quantities, that I have seen the sides of the upper glass filled 
inches high with the captured insects. 
‘‘TIn-doors’”’ attempted preventives, such as muslin over the open- 
ings of windows, fly-traps, fly-screens, sticky paper to secure flies 
which may alight upon it, a solution of quassia with plenty of sugar 
added to attract and poison them, and various other deterrents or 
possible deterrents, are too well known to require special mention ; 
but for clearing the windows of a room on a sunny day, when the 
glass seems alive with the buzzing multitudes, the only plan which I 
know of, and which I have always found to act thoroughly, is one 
contrived by my late sister, Georgiana Ormerod, who always had great 
pleasure in adding to the comfort of those about her. 
The arrangement is, firstly, to draw down the lower sash of the 
window, so that it is closely shut; then to draw down the upper sash 
for about a foot, so that it is open at the top. Next, draw down the 
rolling blind, so that the buzzing pests are enclosed between this 
calico blind and the glass panes of the window. Following their 
natural instinct, the flies rise, and when they arrive at the opening to 
the fresh air outside, out they all go. 
We usually carried out this plan on the side divisions, as being 
more convenient for management than the large central division of 
the bay-windows, in the rooms in which the autumn legions of flies 
troubled us, and I never knew it to fail; the peace and silence which 
we enjoyed after the preceding commotion was for years a comfort to 
ourselves, and in case of serious illness might be of great relief to a 
suffering patient. 
The only other plan which I have heard of for broadscale clearance 
of flies from an infested room is sulphur fumigation, but of this I have 
no experience; and besides that, the plan could not be carried out in 
living rooms, where remains of fumes might be very injurious to the 
in-dwellers, and it might not (in the heating processes) be wholly 
without danger of setting the house on fire. 
Yet one further point may require a word. Where “ flies” (as 
they have been reported to me) appear in vast numbers in an upstairs 
room from inside the roof, or from somewhere which in itself cannot 
be supposed to be the breeding-place, it would be highly desirable to 
have inspection by a qualified expert, for it might prove that com- 
munication exists between sewers or other repositories of filth, and 
that the flies might be a sign of something much more prejudicial to 
the health having means of access in the form of sewer-gas. 
