228 THE HOUSE FLY DISEASE CARRIER 



and medical societies, however, will naturally be will- 

 ing to co-operate. The association hopes that there 

 will be public-spirited citizens in the various towns 

 who will themselves institute competitions of this 

 sort. 



Referring to this matter, in a paper read later at 

 the meeting. Doctor Woods Hutchinson said, "I be- 

 lieve that we could utilize an enormous amount of 

 good enthusiasm and good human activity going to 

 waste under the name of 'mischief/ and if we could 

 take the enthusiasm of a boy and his delight of get- 

 ting into mischief and put him to work on the fly 

 problem, I believe we could do a great deal towards 

 putting any community into a practical process of 

 cleansing." 



An important point which we have not yet men- 

 tioned is that it will be important to have one or more 

 well-posted physicians on the advisory board of any 

 fly-fighting organization, in order that the tendency 

 of enthusiastic people to make extreme statements 

 which are unscientific and not perfectly justified by 

 facts may be held within bounds by others posted as 

 to scientific methods and as to the exact truth of the 

 sanitary aspects of the crusade. The advisory com- 

 mittee, and especially its medical members, will find 

 themselves much embarrassed by the difficulty of re- 

 fraining from over-statements. 



The fly situation is an extremely bad one in all truth, 

 but if it is exaggerated in order to attract and inten- 

 sify universal popular interest, the very exaggeration 



