THE WORK OF THE SANITARY AUTHORITY 47 



If this was done by every keeper of horses, cows, 

 sheep, and goats regularly and carefully once every 

 week at a definite hour on a chosen day there would 

 be no flies, the milk and the children's food would not 

 be contaminated, and then there would be less infant 

 mortality. 



This description sounds worthy of a sanitary 

 Utopia ; it seems more easily described than done. 

 For example, who is going to see that the dairyman 

 cleans his stable once a week, and who is going to see 

 that all stable-owners do the same ? Suppose they 

 object. What then? Perhaps there are hundreds or 

 thousands of fly-breeding places to be dealt with. 



But it can be done. At Port Said the mosquito 

 brigade dealt with 6,000 houses eveiy week, including 

 400 flooded cellars, and the mosquito-breeding places 

 were sought out and dealt with regularly once every 

 week. As a result the mosquitos disappeared. If this 

 can be done at Port Said it can surely be done at 

 home. It is just as easy to deal with flies as it is with 

 mosquitos. 



This is the real work of the sanitary authority. It 

 must be done sooner or later, so why delay ? Let the 

 medical officer give the command that flies must be 

 abolished or so reduced in numbers that the town is 

 almost free from them ; and let him see that his com- 

 mand is obeyed. Then the sanitary inspectors, the 

 inspectors of nuisances, the scavenging service will 

 realise that a crusade against the pest is to be under- 

 taken in earnest. An anti-fly campaign must be 

 instituted. But it should not be left to individuals, but 

 must be carried out at the bidding and kept up under 

 the supervision of the local sanitary authority. It is 

 of little use to make an intermittent and spasmodic 



