THE HOUSE FLY 



CHAPTER I 



MICROBES are the cause of disease and premature death in 

 man and beast. There are great numbers of kinds or 

 species of microbes. Those known as disease-producing 

 microbes are like a watchful hostile army, ever ready to 

 deliver an attack. Ever since the discovery of these 

 terrible little fellows, which are so small that it requires a 

 high-power microscope to see them, men of science have 

 been waging war against them. For untold generations 

 disease microbes have worked their will on man and beast, 

 for their very existence, owing to their invisibility to un- 

 aided vision, was entirely unsuspected. Knowing not the 

 originating causes of diseases, those who sought to cure 

 them invariably either killed their patients, or else left them 

 with damaged constitutions. 



However, that is a thing of the past. We now know the 

 originating causes of most of the diseases which attack 

 both man and beast. Whenever a new form of disease 

 appears, our men of science immediately set themselves 

 the task of tracing the cause, knowing that before the enemy 

 can be outflanked he must be located. Then the bom- 

 bardment begins. The battle is often fierce and long, but 

 in all the fights so far put up against the disease microbe 

 army, we have steadily gained ground. 



