OFFICIAI. INSPECTIONS 49. 33 



in Newark, Deleware a severe epidemic of the same disease 

 occurred which, according to the physicians and bacteriologists 

 who studied the situation, was spread directly by the flies. 

 Only recently it has been demonstrated that the stable fly 

 which looks very much like the house fly' is one of the impor- 

 tant factors in the spread of infantile paralysis. 



DISEASE EADEN DUST. 



A second important reason for the covering of foods is the 

 fact that the dust of the streets of our cities and towns is 

 dangerous. The composition of numerous samples of street 

 dust has been studied and it has been found that this dust is 

 made up of a great variety of materials. Ordinarily it com- 

 prises particles of sand, bits of straw, hairs, threads of wool 

 and cotton, soot, decaying animal and vegetable matter, finely 

 powdered horse manure, sputum from human beings, in which 

 are recognized the germs responsible for tuberculosis, pneu- 

 monia, influenza and other infectious diseases. Plaster, stone 

 dust, cement, dirt from excavations, ashes, house sweepings, 

 dried garbage, chimney soot, cinders, and almost every imag- 

 inable kind of material that can be ground into a fine powder. 

 Not only is the dust dangerous because of the pathogenic 

 bacteria which are nearly always present, but because of the 

 additional fact that the dust itself being composed of fine 

 irregular, jagged particles is a severe irritant to the membranes 

 of the mouth, nose and throat, and may of itself produce 

 inflammatory conditions which are not only disagreeable in 

 themselves, but which predispose these delicate tissues to the 

 attacks of dangerous disease germs. While the organisms 

 responsible for various diseases cannot as a rule long survive 

 the drying out process which the dust undergoes it has been 

 demonstrated that the germs of tuberculosis can live for a long 

 time under very adverse conditions, and as a consequence the 

 germs of this most dangerous disease are nearly always pres- 

 ent in the dust of the city streets. Foods displayed upon the 

 sidewalks or even in the store unprotected are unavoidably 

 receiving the dust which blows in clouds with the almost con- 

 stant winds or as it is shifted about by the draughts of open- 

 ing doors and windows and the moving of crowds. 



