FLIES IX MILITARY CAMI'S 235 



thoroughly convinced that the chief agent in the distiibution of 

 typhoid fever was the fly; p. 107, the cause was not the water- 

 supply but fly contamination; flies "had inflicted greater loss 

 upon the American soldiers than all the arms of Spain"; p. 206, 

 the cook observed flies with feet covered with disinfecting lime, on 

 the food; p. 273, where mosquito netting was used little or no 

 typhoid was contracted ; p. 279, flies observed carrying lime from 

 privy vaults ; repeated mention of sinks and flies in millions, of 

 sinks near to mess tents ; p. 535, the flies and the heat made a 

 visit to the sinks (latrines) like a visit to purgatory ; p. 665, flies 

 swarmed so numerously that the first faecal droppings were 

 covered before defaecation was complete. 



The above statements are all the more significant, when it is 

 remembered that at that time (1898) the idea of the house-flv as 

 a disease carrier had hardly been conceived except in the minds 

 of a limited number of investigators. The evidence which was 

 afforded, however, Avas convincing enough and it was only natural 

 that the Commission came to the conclusion that : " flies un- 

 doubtedly served as carriers of infection." From this onward, the 

 belief in the disease-carrying powers of the house-fly increased in 

 strength and became firmly established in people's minds. 



Chmelicek (1899) in recording his experience of the conditions 

 of camp life at Tampa, Florida, during the Spanish-American war, 

 states: "The pits were only about forty feet from the entrance of 

 the kitchen tent and the number of flies around these holes was 

 countless." He calls attention to the fact, to which Aldridge 

 (1907) referred later, that the greatest incidence of typhoid was 

 among the mounted troops, and he attributed it to the larger 

 number of flies present. In reference to the conditions in the 

 kitchens he mentions the fact that the flies travelled from the 

 latrines to the kitchen tent where sugar, which was exposed for 

 hours, was almost black with them and looked more like a bag or 

 box full of raisins than of sugar. 



Dutton (1909) gives an interesting figure to demonstrate the 

 manner in which flies would be carried from sources of typhoid 

 infection (division hospitals and latrines) in the camps of the 

 United States Army at Fernandina and Tampa to different parts 

 of these camps. He states that Sergeant Brady, who was stricken 



