388 MAN'S IMPROVEMENT OF HIS ENVIRONMENT 



An Experiment in Civic Hygiene. During the summer of 1913 

 an interesting experiment on the relation of flies and filth to disease 

 was carried on in New York City by the Bureau of Public Health 

 and Hygiene of the New York Association for improving the con 

 dition of the poor. 

 Two adjoining blocks 

 were chosen in a 

 thickly populated part 

 of the Bronx near a 

 number of stables 

 which were the 

 sources of great num 

 bers of flies. In one 

 block all houses were 

 screened, garbage pails 

 were furnished with 

 covers, refuse was re 

 moved and the sur- 

 s^lSM^.^ I ' , ii*w**.^. ,. , 



roundmgs made as 



sanitary as possible. 

 In the adjoining block 

 conditions were left 

 unchanged. During 

 the summer as flies 

 began to breed in the 



HpKipft|i| ---1- manure heaps near the 



stables all manure was 

 disinfected. Thus the 

 breeding of flies was 

 checked. The cam 

 paign of education was 

 continued during the summer by means of moving pictures, 

 nurses, boy scouts, and school children who became interested. 



At the end of the summer it was found that there had been a 

 considerable decrease in the number of cases of fly-carried diseases 

 and a still greater decrease in the total days of sickness (especially 

 of children) in the screened and sanitary block. The table and 



The upper picture shows the stables where millions 

 of flies were bred ; the lower picture, the disinfec 

 tion of manure so as to prevent the breeding of 

 flies. 



