October, 1911.] 



837 



Miscellaneous. 



contents. Look how we grumble that 

 we do not get good milk, good butter 

 and good ghee. Whose fault is this? 

 Do we do auy thing to remove the com- 

 plaints? Those of our young men who 

 fail year after year to pass the Univer- 

 sity* examination may surely employ 

 their misdirected energies into better 

 use by joining some technical or agricul- 

 tural seminary and carve out a career, 

 honourable to themselves and profitable 

 to the country. The more such avenues 

 of work are widened you will find more 

 araity between the two great communi- 

 ties of this country who now fight for 

 the loaves and fishes of office. Gentlemen, 

 it is uiy firm belief that the salvation of 

 our country will not take place till we 

 have thoroughly improved our agricul- 

 tural and industrial condition and ele- 

 vated the position of our rural popu- 

 lation. Mi*. Chairman, these are some 

 of the problems with which we are con- 

 fronted at the present time. We have 

 reached a stage in our progress as a 

 people which can well be described as a 

 parting of the ways. We cannot stop 

 giving education to our people. It is 

 the birth- right of every child to be 

 educated. But we must put our educa- 

 tional system on a more sound and prac- 

 tical basis. We must direct our atten- 

 tion more and more to scientific and 

 technical education side by side with 

 the education our boys are now receiv- 

 ing. The world is moving onward, we 

 cannot afford to stand still, stagnate 

 and die. 1 have placed before you some 

 suggestions. I feel they are not ade- 

 quate. But let us face our difficulties 

 squarely and find out solutions. Our 

 attitude of drifting on will not help us. 

 So let us be up and doing and move on- 

 ward till the goal^is reached. 



FLIES AS DISEASE CARRIERS. 



(Prom the Veterinan/ News, Vol. VIII., 

 No. 399, August 26, 1911.) 



In the third report to the Local 

 Government Board on flies as carriers of 

 infection, issued in August, 1910, Dr. 

 Monckton Copeman stated that it was 

 proposed to devote special attention to 

 the elucidation of the question as to the 

 range of flight of flies both in horizontal 

 and vertical directions. In this connec- 

 tion he said that arrangements had been 

 completed at Cambridge for the location 

 of a number of stations at which fly- 

 traps of various kinds could be installed. 

 The flies trapped at the various stations 

 would be examined and counted with 

 special reference to " marked " indivi- 

 duals. In this way some definite idea 



13 



could be formed as to the distance a fly 

 can travel, and as to its rate of travel. 

 Unfortunately, circumstances arose 

 which prevented these experiments being 

 carried out in Cambridge, but an oppor- 

 tunity arose of conducting them on 

 somewhat modified lines in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Norwich. 



In July, 1010, there was an unpre- 

 cedented plague of flies in Postwick, a 

 small villaee some five miles from 

 Norwich, Within about half a mi'e of 

 the village, and with the river Yare 

 intervening, is situated the Norwich 

 sewage farm, on which the house refuse 

 from that city is deposited, being 

 brought down the river by barges. 

 Upon investigating the circumstances, 

 Dr. Copeman, who was accompanied by 

 Mr. P. M. HowlPtt, b.a., p.e.s., and 

 Mr. Gordon Merriman came to the con- 

 clusion that there was in the village no 

 unusual accumulations of manure or 

 other fermenting refuse affording special 

 opportunity for the breeding of house- 

 flies in such large numbers as were found 

 to be present. Attention was then 

 drawn to the refuse heap on the Norwich 

 sewage farm, where it was found that 

 fermentation was still actively going on, 

 the new portions steaming vigorously 

 when the top layer was disturbed — 

 altogether an ideal breeding place 

 for house-flies. Near to the refuse heap 

 was a workman's hut heated by a stove 

 which was kept continuously burning 

 day and night. Into this hut the flies 

 swarmed incessantly, and four lots were 

 caught at intervals of a month in July, 

 August, September, and October. The 

 first lot were sent for identification to 

 Mr. E. E. Austen, F.Z.S., of the Natural 

 History Museum. The majority of them 

 were found to be the common house-fiy 

 (Ulusca domestica). The flies caught in 

 August were marked by shaking the 

 net in which they were caught in 

 a stout paper bag containing a small 

 quantity of finely-powdered coloured 

 chalk, using as a rule a different colour 

 in each of four days, yellow and red 

 being found to be the best colours. 

 After having been marked, the flies 

 were liberated. About 3,000 were set 

 free on August 20, and on the followiug 

 day one was observed 400 yards distant, 

 and one in Postwick Church over 1,000 

 yards away, and on August 22 one was 

 seen 1,000 yards from the refuse tip. On 

 August 21, 1,000 were liberated, and of 

 these five were caught on the two 

 succeeding days at distances varying 

 from 800 yards to 1,408 yards, About 

 2,000 were set free on August 22, 

 of which number fifty were caught 

 up to August 26 at spots also varying 



