746 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



average salary of an inspector is $1,147, 

 so that the total expense for the first year 

 would be something like $4,500. But the 

 inspectors' service is complicated by the 

 matter of prosecution. Much of the time 

 of inspectors would be taken in the prose- 

 cution of the owners of neglected prem- 

 ises. Moreover, the health officer has 

 found during the summer of 1908, in his 

 prosecution of the owners or managers of 

 insanitary restaurants, that his inspectors 

 were practically sworn out of court by 

 the multiplicity of opposing evidence. 

 This means that it will be necessary in 

 such cases to send two inspectors together 

 in all cases, so that the testimony of one 

 may be supported by the testimony of the 

 other. This, perhaps, would double the 

 number of necessary inspectors, making 

 the expense of the service something over 

 $9,000. 



It is reasonably safe to state, however, 

 that with such an expense for competent 

 service, or perhaps with a slightly added 

 expense, the typhoid fly could be largely 

 eliminated as an element in the transfer 

 of disease in the District of Columbia, 

 and the difficulty which the authorities 

 have had in locating the cause of a very 

 considerable proportion of the cases of 

 typhoid in the District for the past two 

 or three years indicates plainly to the 

 mind of the writer that the typhoid fly 

 is a much more important element than 

 has been supposed. It is a comforting 

 although comparatively insignificant fact 

 and a matter of common observation that 

 in certain sections of the city the typhoid 

 fly has been much less numerous during 

 the past summer than in previous years. 

 The writer is inclined to attribute this to 

 the gradual disappearance of horse sta- 

 bles in such sections, brought about by 

 the rapidly increasing use of motor 

 vehicles. 



FUBEIC INDIFFERENCE TO THE TYPHOID 

 FEY IS CRIMINAL 



We have thus shown that the typhoid 

 or house fly may carry typhoid fever, 

 Asiatic cholera, dysentery, cholera mor- 

 bus, and other intestinal diseases ; it may 

 carry the bacilli of tuberculosis and cer- 



tain eye diseases; it is everywhere pres- 

 ent, and it is disposed of with compara- 

 tive ease. It is the duty of every indi- 

 vidual to guard so far as possible against 

 the occurrence of flies upon his premises. 

 It is the duty of every community, 

 through its board of health, to spend 

 money in the warfare against this enemy 

 of mankind. This duty is as pronounced 

 as though the community were attacked 

 by bands of ravenous wolves. 



As a matter of fact, large sums of 

 money are spent annually in the protec- 

 tion of property in the United States. 

 Large sums of money are spent also in 

 health matters ; but the expenditure for 

 protection from flies is very small and is 

 misdirected. There is much justifica- 

 tion for the following criticism published 

 editorially in the Journal of the American 

 Medical Association for August 22, 

 1908, under the caption, "National Farm 

 Commission and Rural Sanitation:" 



"The President calls attention to the 

 fact that all efforts to aid the farmers 

 have hitherto been directed to improving 

 their material welfare, while the man 

 himself and his family have been neg- 

 lected. Nowhere is this more marked 

 than in the attitude of the general gov- 

 ernment in matters relating to sanitation. 

 It is a trite saying that whereas the gov- 

 ernment, through the Department of Ag- 

 riculture, aids the farmer generously in 

 caring for the health of his hogs, sheep, 

 etc., it does nothing for his own health. 

 The government issues notices to the 

 farmer of the injury done to his crops by 

 the cotton-boll weevil and the potato bugs 

 and how to combat them, but the injury 

 the mosquito does in spreading malaria 

 to the people who pick the cotton and 

 hoe the potatoes is not impressed on him. 

 The fact that horseflies may carry an- 

 thrax to his cattle is dealt with at con- 

 siderable length, but the diseases which 

 the house fly spreads to the milk and to 

 the farmer's family attract practically no 

 attention. How to build a hogpen or a 

 sanitary barn is the subject of a number 

 of government publications, but how to 

 build a sanitary privy which will pre- 

 vent the spread of typhoid, hook worm,. 



