hodge] 



FLIES AS A NATURE-STUDY PROBLEM 



87 



in consequence, rechristened the insect the "Typhoid Fly." Since 

 1898 the evidence has been piling up to prove that flies carry many 

 other filth-disease infections, and Dr. Stiles, of hookworm fame, 

 suggested the appropriate name, "Filth-Disease Fly." No com- 

 plete list of all the diseases that flies may carry has been compiled, 

 but breeding as they do in all kinds of decaying filth, and feeding 

 and dabbling in all manner of germ laden matter, they may spread 

 practically any infection with which they come in contact. As 

 many as 6,600,000 bacteria have been washed from the out- 



Fig. 6. 



side of one fly and over 90,000,000 have been found in the crop 

 and intestines of a single specimen, many of which are discharged 

 alive in "fly specks." We are having millions of cases and are 

 losing 70,300 babies a year by fly-time "summer complaint," 

 most of them caused by fly borne infections, especially from filth 

 to milk. 



Local Problems. Make a list of all cases of sickness in the 

 neighborhood, and try to determine for each one how the disease 

 was caught. How many might have been contracted from flies 

 and from fly infected milk or other foods. Include all diseases 

 of animals, glanders, hog and fowl choleras and tuberculosis, 

 pneumonia, foot and mouth disease and any others. 



