The House Fly 
7 
cholera, dysentery, and infantile diarrhoea ; 
while germs of tuberculosis, anthrax, 
ophthalmia and small-pox have been found 
in the house fly. 
How to be rid of them is a problem. 
No small fortune awaits the man who can 
rid a house of flies. Every device has been 
tried even to screening windows and doors 
but without much effect. “ Fly cem- 
eteries ” and different kinds of sticky, 
uninviting looking papers and wires have 
been invented, but with very little result. 
During the winter of 1905 a French news- 
paper offered a reward of 10,000 francs for 
the best essay upon the destruction of the 
house fly, and the prize was awarded to 
one who suggested the use of a residuum 
oil, which was to be used in cesspools 
and in all places where there is an accumula- 
tion of filth. This it was suggested would 
form a covering of oil killing the existing 
larvae and preventing the female fly from 
approaching to deposit her eggs. It was 
claimed, too, that it would cover excrement 
and hasten the development of what is 
known as anoerobic bacteria as in a septic 
pit, which leads to the liquefaction of solid 
