6. MISCELLANEOUS. 



THE HOUSE FLY PROBLEM. 



During the past year many thousands of the leaflets issued in the 

 autumn of 1910 have been distributed, and the same leaflet on hang- 

 ing cards has been placed in a large number of public institutions, 

 free libraries, schools, etc. 



The same leaflet has been translated into Portuguese, and 14,000 

 distributed by the Municipal Council of Oporto. 



The following letter, published in the Birmingham Daily Mail of 

 August 3Oth, 1911, has also been widely distributed. 



To the Editor of the Birmingham Daily Mail. 

 HOUSE FLIES AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH. 



Sir, I have followed with interest the recent correspondence in 

 your columns relative to the above subject, in reference to which I 

 venture to trespass upon your space with the following remarks. 



The present summer will long be remembered for the plague of 

 flies, for not only is the common house-fly more prevalent than ever, 

 but the closely allied, but smaller species, popularly known as the 

 lesser house-fly, is more abundant than I have ever previously known 

 it. Co-existing with this plague during the past few weeks an 

 epidemic of infantile diarrhoea and English cholera, both of a severe 

 type, has been prevalent throughout the country. I am well aware 

 that both of the above-mentioned maladies may have an origin quite 

 apart from flies, but in the light of recent investigations there is more 

 than a strong suspicion that they are largely transmitted by these filthy 

 insects. 



As I have elsewhere pointed out, no fly is free from disease germs, 

 wherever they occur they are the embodiment and emblem of filth, 

 and by carrying such germs on their legs and bodies, they pollute 

 food and spread the infection. The presence, therefore, of these 

 insects in a dwelling house is a source of danger, and, at the same 

 time, an indication of filth in the neighbourhood, or of defective 

 sanitary conditions. 



Quite recently Dr. William Nicoll has shown that flies carry on 



