STEUCTURE, DEVELOPMENT, AND BIONOMICS OF HOUSE-FLY. 387 
experienced the effects of flies, were even better than these. 
He said (Dent., Ch. xxiii, v. 12-13) : “ Thou shalt have a 
place also without the camp whither thou shalt go forth 
abroad; and thou shalt have a paddle [or ^shovel’] among 
thy weapons; and it shall be, when thousittest down abroad, 
thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that 
which cometh from thee.’^ 
Sternberg is of the opinion that typhoid fever and camp 
diarrhoea are frequently communicated to soldiers through 
the ag-ency of flies, “-which swarm about faecal matter and 
filth of all kinds deposited upon the ground or in shallow pits, 
and directly convey infectious material attached to their feet 
or contained in their excreta to the food which is exposed 
while being- prepared in the common kitchen, or while being 
served in the mess-tent.” 
Yeeder (1898), in i-eferring to the conditions existing in the 
camps of the Spanish-American war, says that in the latrine 
trenches he saw “ faecal matter fresh from the bowel and in 
its most dangerous condition, covered with myriads of flies, 
and at a short distance there was a tent, equally open to the 
air, for dining and cooking. To say that the flies were busy 
travelling back and from between these two places is putting 
it mildly.” Further, he says, “ There is no doubt that air 
and sunlight kill infection, if given time, but their very access 
gives opportunity for the flies to do serious mischief as con- 
veyers of fresh infection wherever they put their feet. In a 
very few minutes they may load themselves with the dejec- 
tions from a typhoid or dysenteric patient, not as yet sick 
enough to be in hospital or under observation, and carry the 
poison so taken up into the very midst of the food and water 
ready for use at the next meal. There is no long and round- 
about process involved. It is very plain and direct. Yet when 
the thousands of lives are at stake in this way the danger- 
passes unnoticed, and the consequences are disastrous and 
seem mystei-ious until attention is directed to the point; then 
it becomes simple enough in all conscience.” 
The Commission which investigated the outbreaks of 
