30 BACTERIA IN DAILY LIFE 



War, it is emphatically stated that flies played an 

 important part in the dissemination of typhoid 

 fever. 



There is no question as to the capability of 

 certain micro-organisms to reside for considerable 

 periods of time within the bodies of flies, and 

 during this sojourn to abate no jot of their 

 virulence. Indeed, it has been shown that the 

 bodies of these insects may constitute incubators 

 of a most successful type, for some varieties of 

 bacteria grow luxuriantly and multiply abundantly 

 within them. 



In the hot days of summer, when flies abound, 

 it would be well to banish these insects, as far as 

 lies in our power, not only from our sick-rooms in 

 particular, but from our general surroundings. 

 The catholic taste of flies for garbage of all 

 kinds is too well known to require entering into, 

 but the consequences which may follow from their 

 visits to dustbins and centres of disease, and then 

 alighting upon our food or persons, has received 

 too little attention in the past. 



In regard to the subject of insects as disease 

 disseminators, it may be mentioned that Mr. 

 Hankin, when studying plague conditions in 

 India, expressed his belief that ants in Bombay 

 also assisted in spreading the scourge, for he found 

 that when he inoculated mice with the excreta of 



