408 SCIENCE OF HOME AND COMMUNITY 



bers, and that when the number of flies decreased on the 

 approach of cold weather, the number of deaths decreased 

 also. During the year 1908, there were 5550 deaths due to 

 these diseases. The committee which had charge of this 

 investigation estimated that 4272 of these deaths were due 

 to flies. An insect which is believed to cause over four thou- 

 sand deaths in a single city in a single year is certainly to be 

 considered a most dangerous animal. The following quota- 

 tion is taken from Mr. Jackson's report for the committee : 

 " Regarded in the light of recent knowledge, the fly is more 

 dangerous than the tiger or the cobra. Worse than that, 

 he is, at least in our climate, much more to be feared than 

 the mosquito and may easily be classed the world over as 

 the most dangerous animal on earth." 



6. Epidemics of typhoid fever and other diseases occur, 

 which can easily be explained on the supposition that the 

 disease was carried by flies, but which cannot be explained 

 in any other way. 



7. In the city of Seattle, Washington, during the year 

 1908, when a special crusade was waged against flies by the 

 Board of Health, the death rate from typhoid fever was 

 reduced one half. 



Flies and typhoid fever. The fly is such a common carrier 

 of typhoid fever that Dr. Howard, the United States Ento- 

 mologist, has proposed that its common name be changed 

 from house fly to typhoid fly. The bacteria which cause 

 typhoid fever pass out in the excretions of the patient. 

 Whenever these are exposed the bacteria may be carried by 

 flies and left on uncovered food and dishes. Five thousand 

 American soldiers died of typhoid fever during the Spanish- 

 American War. It is now believed that the epidemic was 

 due largely to flies, which were thus responsible for more 

 deaths than the Spanish bullets. 



Flies probably rank next to impure milk and polluted water, 

 as a means of spreading diseases. In those cities which 



