28 THE HOUSE FLY 



the well-being of the Children of Israel during their famous 

 march through the wilderness, seemed fully aware of the 

 danger of life and health by the presence of the House 

 Fly, as will be seen on reference to the Hebrew Scriptures. 



In the eighth chapter, 24th verse of Exodus, there is 

 the following : " And there came a grievous swarm of flies 

 into the house of Pharoah, and into his servants' houses, 

 and into all the land of Egypt : the land was corrupted by 

 reason of the swarm of flies." Then in the following chap- 

 ter a murrain of beasts is recorded. " Behold the hand of 

 the Lord is upon the cattle which is in the field ; upon the 

 horses, and the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and 

 upon the sheep." Following this we find it recorded that 

 the first-born of the Egyptians were stricken with death. 

 We can reasonably assume that flies carried the disease 

 germs of various plagues throughout the land, with the 

 result that the inhabitants and their domestic animals 

 suffered appallingly. 



A writer named Sydenham, who is stated to have lived 

 between 1624 and 1689, although knowing nothing of 

 disease germs, or how diseases were spread about, was 

 nevertheless of a very observant nature, for he noted that 

 when flies were plentiful during the summer months, there 

 was a corresponding increase in diseases in the autumn. 

 Knowing what we do to-day about the microbes of disease, 

 and the habits of the House Fly, we are aware that an 

 abundance of flies during the summer will certainly mean 

 a considerable increase in the number of cases of illness and 

 death in the autumn. When we have an extra hot summer, 

 we invariably attribute the increase of sickness and deaths 

 in the community to the effects of the heat ; whereas the 



