INJURIOUS INSECTS OF I9Q09 AND IQIO. 135 
THE TYPHOID FLY ON THE MINNESOTA IRON RANGE. 
Your entomologist was called upon in September, 1910, by a 
member of the State Board of Health, to visit with him some of 
the towns of the Iron Range, for the purpose of determining to 
what an extent the house fly or typhoid fly was responsible for an 
epidemic of typhoid fever then prevalent there. 
During the first trip, and on the occasicn of a second trip made 
later, we found the following conditions: House flies were ex- 
tremely abundant, and houses of miners, boarding houses, cheap 
hotels, camps, etc., were improperly screened. The surroundings of 
some of the dairies in that section were in the highest degree un- 
sanitary. Revolting conditions, in large part the result of igno- 
rance or indifference, or both, on the part of the miners, were pre- 
valent in every place visited. The miners consist largely of Aus- 
trians, Italians, Finns, and a very few Swedes. Although the Finns 
and Swedes are by far more cleanly in habits and environment than 
the other two races, they were the chief sufferers from typhoid, 
due to the fact, we believe, that both Finns and Swedes lunch fre- 
quently during the day upon cold food. The Italians eat hot meals, 
as do also the Austrians, and the former use but little milk. These 
two races, although much to be criticised along the lines of cleanli- 
ness, escaped typhoid. The cold food referred to above is on the 
table all day, freely visited and walked over by flies which enter 
through unscreened windows or doors, having come directly from 
near-by filth; in some cases undoubtedly from typhoid excreta de- 
posited in open vaults without having been sterilized. In more than 
one case we found a landlady temporarily caring for a typhoid 
boarder before he went to one of the hospitals, if indeed he were 
fortunate enough to get into a hospital, and at the same time cook- 
ing for her remaining guests. A dangerous combination, espe- 
cially with the prevailing ignorance as regards the germs of the 
disease. 
We found that the sewer of one of the towns, a city of about 
12,000 inhabitants, emptied into an open creek less than a mile away, 
