INSECTS AND WAR 33 



we have said, it was thought that those flies which 

 survive the winter were fertilised females of the 

 younger broods, and that during the winter they 

 subsisted on their " fat bodies/' and it may be so. 



Flies breeding in horse manure, or coming 

 direct from infected organic matter, contaminate 

 the jam, the milk, and other food of the soldier. 

 Until the perfecting of the anti-typhus inocula- 

 tion was effected, in times of war typhoid killed 

 more soldiers than bullets. Infantile diarrhoea 

 is another disease associated with Musca domestica, 

 ophthalmia and anthrax are others. 



It will be noted that the fly acts simply as an 

 inoculating agent. The germs which are con- 

 veyed are mostly bacteria, and they do not 

 necessarily undergo any change within the body 

 of the house-fly. 



Next we come to a series of insects which 

 affect the food of soldiers and sailors. One is 

 the flour-moth, Ephestia kuhniella, whose larva 

 burrows through the soldiers' biscuit and not 

 only consumes a considerable portion of it, but 

 renders it so unpalatable that Sergeant Daniel 

 Nicol, of the Q2nd Gordon Highlanders, tells us 

 that, during the Expedition to Egypt in 1801, 



