64 THE HOUSE FLY 



African public in regard to the House Fly were sharp and 

 severe. "Why," said he, "you are like an army of men 

 feasting and merrymaking while the sharpshooters of the 

 enemy are busy picking them off in ones and twos and 

 dozens. 



"It may interest you to know," he continued, "that 

 the people of my State are now so well educated on the 

 ways and habits of the House Fly and its disease germ- 

 carrying powers, as well as its loathsomeness, that if a 

 fly enters a house it is instantly hunted down and killed. 

 I have noticed in travelling your country that cafes and 

 provision shops are usually swarming with flies. In my 

 State if the people notice even half a dozen flies in a cafe 

 or in a shop containing edibles of any description, the 

 place is boycotted." 



In all communities of men under municipal control it 

 is undoubtedly a plain duty of the governing bodies to 

 abolish the breeding-places of flies. Some years ago 

 malarial fever broke out in Durban. The Corporation took 

 the matter in hand, and by working in a thoroughly 

 systematic way, and by promulgating stringent regula- 

 tions, and causing them to be strictly enforced, malaria 

 was stamped out. In this instance it was the breeding- 

 places of mosquitoes which were abolished. 



Should a serious epidemic such as smallpox, cholera or 

 bubonic plague break out, money is freely spent by muni- 

 cipal authorities in order to cope with it. 



Scientific men have demonstrated conclusively that the 

 House Fly is the chief carrier of the infection of a score 

 or more of diseases to both man and beast, and have 

 shown that most of the sickness and premature deaths in 



