September, 1909.] 



197 



collections in the city itself. The city 

 was divided into about thirty districts, 

 and to each district an inspector and two 

 labourers were assigned, each district 

 containing about a thousand houses. 

 An order was issued by the mayor of 

 Havana requiring all collections of water 

 to be so covered that mosquitoes could 

 not have access, a fine being imposed in 

 cases where the order was not obeyed. 

 The health department covered the rain- 

 water barrels of poor families at public 

 expense. All cesspools were tieated 

 witn petroleum. All receptacles contain- 

 ing fresh water which did not comply 

 with the law were empied and on the 

 second offence destroyed. The result of 

 this work thoroughly done was to wipe 

 oat yellow-fever in Havana, and there 

 has not been a certain endemic ease since 

 that time." 



In 1901, similar work was commenced 

 along the route of the Panama Canal, 

 with the most complete success. 



"The remarkable character of these 

 results can only be judged accurately by 

 comparative methods. It is well known 

 that during the French occupation there 

 was an enormous mortality among the 

 European employes, and this was a 

 vital factor in the failure of the work. 

 Exact losses canuot be estimated, since 

 the work was done under seventeen dif- 

 ferent contractors. These contractors 

 were charged SI a day for every sick man 

 to be taken care of in the hospital of the 

 company. Therefore it often happened 

 that when a man became sick his em- 

 ployer discharged him, so that he would 

 not have to bear the expense of hospital 

 charges. There was no police patrol of 

 the territory, and many of these men 

 died along the line. Colonel Gorgas has 

 stated that the English Consul, who was 

 at the Isthmus during the period of the 

 French occupation, is inclined to think 

 that more deaths of employes occurred 

 out of the hospital than in it. A great 

 many were found to have died along the 

 roadside while endeavouring to find their 

 way to the city of Panama. The old 

 superintendent of the French hospital 

 states that one day three of the medical 

 staff died from yellow-fever, and in the 

 same month nine of the medical staff. 

 Thirty-six Roman Catholic sisters were 

 brought over as nurses, and twenty -four 

 died of yellow-fever. On one vessel 

 eighteen young French engineers came 

 over, and in a month after their arrival 

 all but one died." 



The Typhoid Fly. 

 But the part of Dr. Howard's paper 

 that is of more particular interest to ns 

 at the present moment is that which 

 relates to what he calls the " Typhoid 



*}y- This is our domestic pest—the 

 House-fly. He says The name l< ty- 

 phoid fly" is here proposed as a substitute 

 tor the name 'house fly,' now in general 

 use. People have altogether too long 

 considered the house fly as a harmless 

 creature, or, at the most, simply a nui- 

 sance. While scientific researches have 

 shown that it is a most dangerous crea- 

 ture from the standpoint of disease, 

 and while popular opinion is rapidly 

 being educated to the same point, the 

 retention of the name house fly is con- 

 sidered inadvisable, as perpetuating in 

 some degree the old ideas. Strictly 

 speaking, the term "typhoid fly" is 

 open to some objection, as conveying the 

 erroneous idea that this fly is solely 

 responsible for the spread of typhoid, 

 out considering that the creature is 

 dangerous from every point of view, and 

 that it is an important element in the 

 spread of typhoid, it seems advisable to 

 give it a name which is almost wholly 

 justified, and which conveys in itself 

 the idea of serious disease." 



" The true connection of the so-called 

 house fly with typhoid fever and the 

 true scientific evidence regarding its 

 role as a carrier of that disease have 

 only recently been worked out. Celli 

 in 1888 fed flies with pure cultures of 

 the typhoid bacillus, and examined 

 their contents and dejections microsco- 

 pically and culturally. Inoculatous 

 of animals were also made, proving 

 that the bacilli which passed through 

 flies were virulent. Dr. George M. 

 Kober, familiar with Celli's researches, 

 in his report on the prevalence of 

 typhoid fever in the District of Colum- 

 bia, published in 1895, called special at- 

 tention to the danger of contamination 

 of food supplies by flies coming from 

 the excreta of typhoid patients." 



Though a very unsavoury subject, 

 its importance— in connection with the 

 prevalence of typohid fever iu Colombo- 

 makes no excuse necessary for entering 

 fully into these unpleasant details and 

 for quoting largely from Dr. Howard's 

 paper. It should be mentioned that- 

 some ten years ago— He made a rather 

 thorough investigation of the insect 

 fauna of human excrement, and made a 

 further investigation of the species of 

 insects that are attracted to food sup- 

 plies in houses. In a paper entitled 'A 

 Contribution to the Study of the Insect 

 Fauna of Human Excrement (with 

 special reference to the spread of typhoid 

 fever by flies'), he showed that 98'8 

 per cent, of the whole number of insects 

 captured in houses throughout the 

 whole country under conditions indi- 

 cated above were Musca domestica, 

 the typhoid or house tly. He further 



