384 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



germs unless they get on the food you 

 eat or in the liquids you drink, or on the 

 glasses or cups from which you drink. 



Not only does he scatter the seeds of 

 disease from his body over your food, 

 but before your fruit and vegetables are 

 placed before you they have been sub- 

 jected to his filthy habits, either in the 

 kitchen or in the stores, where he flies 

 from the horse dirt in the middle of the 

 street to the tubercular sputum on the 

 sidewalk, and then back to the foodstuffs 

 displayed for sale. 



Many diseases which are attributed to 

 milk and water originate through flies. 

 A polluted brook, river, or lake furnishes 

 germs from sewers, and flies in millions 

 settle on the refuse that washes along the 

 water's edge. 



Intestinal diseases are more frequent 

 whenever and wherever flies are most 

 abundant, and they and not the summer 

 heat are the active agents in its spread. 



There is special danger when flies drop 

 into such fluid as milk. This forms an 

 ideal culture material for the bacillus. A 

 few germs washed from the body of one 

 fly may develop into millions within a 

 few hours, and the person who drinks 

 such milk will receive large doses of 

 bacilli, which may later cause serious 

 sickness. 



Therefore, keep the flies away from 

 the milk. 



don'ts 



Don't allow flies in your house. 



Don't permit them near your food, 

 especially milk. 



Don't buy foodstuff where flies are 

 tolerated. 



Don't have feeding places where flies 

 can load themselves with ejections from 

 typhoid or dysenteric patients. 



Don't allow your fruits and confec- 

 tions to be exposed to the swarms of 

 flies. 



Don't let flies crawl over the baby's 

 mouth and swarm upon the nipple of its 

 nursing bottle. 



Clean up your premises inside and out, 

 and then, as much as you can, see that 

 others do the same. 



Strike at the root of the evil. The 

 house-fly breeds in horse manure, kitchen, 

 offal, and the like. Dispose of these ma- 

 terials in such a way that the house-fly 

 cannot propagate. Screen all windows- 

 and doors and insist that your grocer,, 

 butcher, baker, and every one from, 

 whom you buy foodstuffs does the same. 



There is more health in a well-screened; 

 house than in many a doctor's visit. 



After you have cleaned up your owni 

 premises inspect the neighborhood for 

 fly-breeding places. Call the attention of 

 the owner to them and, if he does not: 

 remove them, complain to the Board of: 

 Health. 



Flies breed in horse manure, decaying: 

 vegetables, dead animals, and all kinds- 

 of filth. 



NOT le;ss than 95 per cent of THE; 



PESTS ARE BRED IN THE STABLE 



All stables should have a manure bin; 

 with a door at the side and a wire screen: 

 on the top, that the larva deposited in the- 

 manure before it was placed in the bim 

 will be screened when hatched, and, as- 

 flies seek light and come to the top of" 

 the bin, they can be easily killed by burn- 

 ing paper or some other device. 



The fly has a thirst only equaled by 

 his hunger; place a dish of poisoned; 

 water in the stable and a greater part of 

 the flies hatched there will be killed. 



Flies are nature's scavengers, fulfilling; 

 the same function that some bacteria do,, 

 but become an intolerable nuisance and 

 danger when entering human dwellings- 

 and by contamination of food. 



The presence of flies is a direct evi- 

 dence of careless housekeeping and of 

 the existence of filth in some form about 

 the premises, and are more dangerous- 

 than the good housekeeper's terror found' 

 in bed-rooms. 



Remember that wherever absolute- 

 cleanliness prevails there will be no flies. 

 Look after the garbage cans. See that 

 they are cleaned, sprinkled with lime or 

 kerosene oil, and closely covered. 



Remove all manure from stables every 

 three or four days, and when removed 

 keep in a tight pit or vault, so flies cannot 

 breed in it. 



