58 



Insects and Disease 



were thought to be very useful as scavengers as 

 they were often seen feeding on all kinds of refuse 

 in the yard. Then, too, they seemed to be cleanly 

 little things, for almost any time some of them 

 could be seen brushing their heads and bodies 

 with their legs and evidently having a good 

 clean-up. More than that it never occurred to 

 us that it would be possible to get rid of them 

 even should it be thought advisable, for they came 

 from "out doors, " and who could kill all the flies 

 "out doors"? 



Fortunately, or otherwise, these halcyon days 

 have gone by and the common, innocent, friendly 

 little house-fly is now an outcast convicted of 

 many crimes and accused of a long list of others 

 (Fig. 38). 



Its former friends have become its sworn ene- 

 mies. The foremost entomologist of the land has 

 suggested that we even change its name and give 

 it one that would be more suggestive of the ab- 

 horence with which we now look upon it. 



And all these changes have come about because 

 science has turned the microscope on the house- 

 fly and men have studied its habits. We know 

 now that as the fly is "tickling baby's nose" it 

 may be spreading there where they may be in- 

 haled or where they may be taken into the baby's 



