238 THE CARRIAGE OF TYPHOID FEVER BY FLIES 



Bermuda, mentions kitchens within one hundred yards of the 

 latrines; the shallow privy, seldom or never cleaned out, and 

 middens are found which contain masses of filth swarming with 

 flies. He states that in more recent years the period of greatest 

 incidence is in the summer, being chiefly due to flies and 

 contaminated dust. Wanhill (1909) has furnished an interesting 

 report on the typhoid conditions in Bermuda. From 1893 to 1902 

 Bermuda had the highest enteric fever rate among the troops of 

 any conmiand occupied by British troops. Wanhill was placed in 

 charge in 1904 and in two years the disease was almost eradicated. 

 He considered that flies were the most important agents in the 

 dissemination of the bacilli. 



Quill (1900), reporting on an outbreak of enteric in the Boer 

 camp in Ceylon, states : " During the whole period that enteric 

 fever was rife in the Boer camp flies in that camp amounted to 

 almost a plague, the military camp being almost similarly infested, 

 though to a less extent. The outbreak in the Boer camp preceded 

 that among the troops; the two camps were adjacent, and the 

 migration of the flies from the one to the other easy." Weir, 

 reporting on an outbreak of enteric fever in the barracks at 

 Umbala, India^ says that most of the pans' in the latrines were 

 half or quite full, and flies were very numerous in them and on 

 the seats, which latter were soiled by the excreta conveyed by the 

 flies' legs. The men stated that the plague of flies was so great 

 that in the morning they could hardly go to the latrines. He 

 found that the flies were carried from the latrines to the barrack- 

 rooms on the clothes of the men. This state of affairs suggests 

 another mode of infection, namely, joer rectum. As Smith has 

 pointed out (I.e.) it is not improbable that flies under these 

 conditions may be inoculators of dysentery. 



Aldridge(1907) gives some highly suggestive statistics showing 

 the influence of the presence of breeding-places of flies. Flies are 

 found in greater numbers in mounted regiments than in infantry, 

 and he shows how this affects the incidence of enteric fever. In 

 the British army in India, 1902-05, the ratios per 1000 per annum 

 of cases admitted were : cavalry, 5-74, and infantry 4-75. He 

 states that : " A study of the incidence of enteric fever shows that 

 1 Army Medical Department Report, 1902, p. 207. 



