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388 0. GORDON HEWITT. 



enteric fever that occurred in 1898 in the United States 

 during tin's war came to the conclusion that " flies undoubtedly 

 served as carriers of the infection" under the conditions 

 which have already been described. Many other authorities 

 bear witness to the same facts. 



In our own South African war, a year or two later, the 

 same conditions existed, and there was a very heavy loss of 

 life from enteric fever. Writing on the subject, Dunne 

 (1902) says: "The plague of flies which was present during 

 the epidemic of enteric at Bloemfontein in 1900 left a deep 

 impression on my mind, and, as far as I can ascertain from 

 published reports, on all who had experience on that occasion. 

 Nothing was more noticeable than the fall in the admissions 

 from enteric fever coincident with the killing off of the flies 

 on the advent of the cold nights of May and June. In July, 

 when I had occasion to visit Bloemfontein, the hospitals there 

 were half empty, and had practically become convalescent 

 camps." A similar experience is related by Tooth (1901). 

 Referring to the role of flies he says : "As may be expected, 

 the conditious in these large camps were particularly favour- 

 able to the growth and multiplication of flies, which soon 

 became terrible pests. I was told by a resident in Bloem- 

 fontein that these insects were by no means a serious plague 

 in ordinary times, but that they came with the army. It 

 would be more correct to say that the normal number of flies 

 was increased owing to the large quantities of refuse upon 

 which they could feed and multiply. They were all over our 

 food, and the roofs of our tents were at times black with 

 them. It is not unreasonable to look upon flies as a very 

 possible agency in the spreading of the disease, not only 

 abroad but at home. It is a well-known fact that with the 

 first appearance of the frost enteric fever almost rapidly 

 disappears. ... It seems hardly credible that the almost 

 sudden cessation of an epidemic can be due to the effect of 

 cold upon the enteric bacilli only. But there can be no doubt 

 in the mind of anybody who has been living on the open 

 veldt, as we have for three or four months, that flies are ex- 



