246 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9:8— Nov., 1913 



impossible to clean. * But if you think that we do keep our streets 

 and front yards possibly decent, how about many of the alleys and 

 back yards? If you doubt Stiles word, work through the back 

 alleys of any American city, except Cleveland, the present season. 

 Here is where you will find the filth that goes half way toward 

 accounting for our simuner filth-mortality statistics. If we go to 

 our farm barnyards we shall find much that accounts for the other 

 half. I once heard a Scotchman remark that in his country a 

 farmer would be prosecuted for criminal waste if he failed to keep 

 his stables better than most of them are kept with us. Another 

 Scotchman happened to tell me that a relative of his, on buying a 

 Wisconsin farm was obliged to haul out four hundred loads before 

 he could even begin to use the bam, and even then he was in danger 

 of finding places in the yard where he was likely to get in over his 

 rubber boots. 



The state of health on a farm of this type is reported in the 

 Indiana State Board of Health Bulletin for July, 1 9 1 o . In response 

 to an emergency call for Flexner's antimeningitis serimi Dr. Simons 

 finds a seven month's baby suffering from severe enteritis, with the 

 accompanying meningism. A family history chart on the wall 

 shows that four other babies have died under two years of age. He 

 remarks the condition of the barnyard, saying, "If this farmer 

 had attempted so unthinkable a thing as transforming his premises 

 into a fly hatchery for comrnercial purposes, he could not possibly 

 have achieved a more brilliant success." With the death of this 

 baby the parents have lost ^yq. out of six children, and even this 

 may be but a small part of the whole story. The farmer may have 

 been producing milk or other dairy supplies, and for years have 

 been scattering filth-fly funerals among the people of a near-by 

 town or city. 



Here, then, we have our vital lesson. Flies carry all means of 

 infections to which they^have access straight from filth to food. 

 While effecting direct-contact infection the work of flies resembles 

 air-borne contagions, baffling, impossible to trace, prevent or con- 

 trol. As this fact is being recognized health authorities every- 

 where are saying "Free the air of these universal distributers of 

 fUth infections in order that we may see to trace other channels by 

 which diseases are spread." Hence fly extermination becomes the 

 necessary first step in health conservation. 



