284 THE CARRIAGE OF TYPHOID FEVER BY FLIES 



shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which 

 cometh finni thee." 



Sternberg is of the opinion that typhoid fever and camp 

 diarrhoea are frequently communicated to soldiers through the 

 agency of flies, " which swarm about faecal matter and filth of all 

 kinds deposited upon the ground or in shallow pits, and directly 

 convey infectious material attached to their feet or contained in 

 their excreta to the food which is exposed while being prepared in 

 the common kitchen, or while being served in the mess-tent." 



Veeder (1898), in referring to the conditions exi.sting in the 

 camps of the Spanish-American War, says that in the latrine 

 trenches he saw " faecal matter fresh from the bowel and in its 

 most dangerous condition, covered with myriads of flies, and at a 

 short distance there was a tent, equally open to the air, for dining 

 and cooking. To say that the flies were busy travelling back and 

 from between these two places is putting it mildly." Further, he 

 says, "There is no doubt that air and sunlight kill infection, if 

 given time, but their very access gives opportunity for the flies to 

 do serious mischief as conveyers of fresh infection wherever they 

 put their feet. In a very few minutes they may load themselves 

 with the dejections from a typhoid or dysenteric patient, not as yet 

 sick enough to be in hospital or under observation, and carry the 

 poison so taken up into the very midst of the food and water 

 ready for use at the next meal. There is no long and round-about 

 process involved. It is very plain and direct. Yet when the 

 thousands of lives are at stake in this way the danger passes 

 unn(^ticed, and the consequences are disastrous and seem mysterious 

 until attention is directed to the point ; then it becomes simple 

 enough in all conscience." 



The following statements which I have noted in reading the 

 voluminous report of the Commission which was charged with the 

 investigation of the origin and spread of typhoid fever in the 

 United States military camps during the Spanish War in 1898 

 (see Reed, Vaughan and Shakespeare, 1904), give the opinions 

 of observers in different camps : — p. 62, the epidemic was due to 

 flies, not to the water; the careless disposition of filth; p. 74, 

 flies were swarming over sinks, kitchens and mess tables ; p. 88, 

 the epidemic was due to the infection of food by flies; p. 104, 



