218 THE HOUSE FLY— DISEASE CARRIER 



Organisation 



In a number of towns and cities in the United States, 

 the initiative in the fly crusade has been taken by health 

 officers, but in the majority of communities the health 

 officials have to be stirred up. In some cases, as in the 

 State of Florida, the whole State crusade has been 

 begun by the State officials and they have stirred up the 

 town officials. In a few communities — but these are 

 very few — private practitioners have been the exciting 

 cause of anti-fly work. In one State only, so far as 

 the writer knows, has the State medical association 

 established a fly committee which has taken it upon 

 itself to carry information concerning the typhoid fly 

 into every portion of the State. 



Elsewhere, and here are the majority of instances in 

 which anti-fly work has been begun, the beginnings 

 have been made either by a single private individual 

 or by some local organization, as a civic league, a wom- 

 en's club, or a town improvement society. Women's 

 clubs have done very effective work in this direction, 

 and it may be parenthetically stated that a great latent 

 power exists in these organizations, a power which is 

 only just beginning to manifest itself. The energy 

 shown for years by these organizations, while never 

 misdirected, has not until very recently been directed 

 towards the work which is the most productive for the 

 good of all, namely, general sanitary measures with a 

 focusing upon one point after another. The Women's 

 Municipal League of Boston, as an example, has re- 



