110 THE HOUSE FLY— DISEASE CARRIER 



print. Germination experiments showed that spores 

 carried about in this way, if deposited in suitable loca- 

 tions, will germinate, and therefore the fungus may 

 sometimes be spread in this way. 



Other work of this kind, but devoted to specific dis- 

 ease germs, will be mentioned under the different dis- 

 eases in the following pages. But in order perhaps to 

 remove at once the impression which may be left by the 

 cautious words of Doctor Graham-Smith, we may read 

 the conclusions of Professor Nuttall and Mr. Jepson, 

 of Cambridge University, England (1909), both in- 

 vestigators of the highest type, after their critical exam- 

 ination of the accounts of experiments made in this 

 direction : 



''Although there were some who at a very early date 

 looked upon the common house fly with suspicion, it is 

 only of recent years that 'flies' have come to be regarded 

 as a serious factor in the spread of infective diseases. 



"The evidence we have sifted and ordered in these 

 pages is obviously very unequal in value, the most im- 

 portant relating to cholera and typhoid fever — in both 

 cases the evidence incriminating house flies, of which 

 Musca domestica may be regarded as the type, appears 

 to be quite conclusive, and these agents will have to 

 henceforth receive the serious attention they demand 

 at the hands of sanitary authorities. From a practical 

 point of view, it scarcely appears necessary to charge 

 the house fly with more misdoings, bacteriological tests 

 having shown that they are capable of taking up a 

 number of different pathogenic germs and of transport- 



