FLIES AND THE INFANT MORTALITY 9 



that house-flies may convey several diseases besides 

 typhoid fever, cholera, and tuberculosis, namely an- 

 thrax, ophthalmia, swine-fever, possibly diphtheria and 

 small-pox. But there is one other most important 

 disease which there can be little doubt is carried by 

 flies it is infantile enteritis. This disease kills thou- 

 sands of children in the world every year ; it is 

 prevalent here in England, and is a cause of a con- 

 siderable infantile mortality. Yet very little is done by 

 the community generally to prevent flies. Flies cannot 

 be exterminated, but their numbers can be reduced 

 very readily. And the reason why this is not done is 

 that those responsible for safeguarding the public health 

 do not realise how easy it is to reduce the number of 

 flies, and to prevent the diseases they convey. At Port 

 Said, where there was an anti-mosquito campaign in 

 full progress, the organisation was employed for a short 

 period to make an experiment in fly-reduction. The 

 experiment, so far as it went, was very successful, and 

 it can be done anywhere. 



In addition to the danger of house-flies as carriers 

 of disease from one person to another, these insects are 

 a loathsome pest. On warm summer days one has 

 only to watch them swarming round the dust-bin, or to 

 see them attracted by any garbage, manure, or filth, 

 and then to observe them feeding on our food and 

 bathing their filthy feet in the milk -jug, or walking 

 about the sugar, or sprawling in the jam. Or look at 

 them crawling on the window-pane, or feel them 

 buzzing round our mouths and eyes ; in the early 

 morning they persistently attack our nostrils. Glance 

 at the glass of the window and see the marks they 

 make. Do they leave the same marks on our food 

 and on our faces ? Undoubtedly they do. They infest 



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