ACTUAL DAMAGE DONE BY FLIES 17 



It is not meant by the above observations that 

 typhoid fever is conveyed by flies alone ; such a 

 statement would be quite untrue. Typhoid fever is 

 also carried by contaminated water, milk, and these 

 often account for epidemics. Besides, like some other 

 diseases, epidemics can be sometimes explained by the 

 presence in the community of carriers, that is, persons 

 who, having had an attack of the disease, continue to 

 harbour the germs for a long time after they themselves 

 have apparently recovered. But such persons may infect 

 flies. Flies must often be responsible for typhoid fever, 

 which is a very serious affection, and is found all over 

 the world. It caused 196 deaths in London during 

 1910, 181 in Paris, 584 in St. Petersburg, 73 in Berlin, 

 82 in Vienna, 330 in Calcutta, 558 in New York, 195 in 

 Buenos Ayres, and produced a death-rate of 0'05 per 

 1,000 of the population in the towns of England and 

 Wales. Therefore typhoid fever and flies are clearly 

 two important things to be dealt with. 



But if typhoid fever and its prevention are im- 

 portant matters to be considered, there is a disease 

 connected with flies which is even more important, in- 

 asmuch as it produces a much greater death-rate. It 

 is Diarrhoea and enteritis, which, during 1910, killed 

 0-45 per 1,000 of the population in London alone. 



This is a disease of children. Infants are attacked, 

 are taken suddenly ill, and many of them succumb after 

 a few days' illness. In London, during the year 1910, 

 there died of this disease 1,811 infants under two years 

 of age ; and during 1911, which had a hot summer, the 

 infantile death-rate rose to even greater proportions. 

 But in Bombay, during 1910, 2,263 died, and in Paris 

 this disease killed 1,152 infants, in New York 5,649, 

 Chicago 3,384, Rio de Janeiro 2,692. Here, then, is a 



