CONVEYANCE OF CONTAGION BY FLIES. An Anglo-Indian, asked to mention the principal annoyances attending every-day life in this country, would probably catalogue heat, musquitoes, sparrows, and various kinds of winged insects, not forgetting the irrepressible house fly?a dipteron which, whether acting under dense ignorance of danger, or whether influenced by pure impudence, does not hesitate to explore, even at the risk of destruction, the food, the drink, the excreta, the eyes, the lips, the nose, the ears of every variety of humanity, from the beggar in his rags, to the king in purple. Flies are indeed one of the pests of India, and, if we are not mistaken, their influence should be regarded in a more serious light than is generally the case. Wherever dirt, filth, and

putrefaction are found, there will flies be gathered together. But, unfortunately, tlioy have strong, wandering propensities, and do not stay in such localities ; but may, and doubtless do?

often visit my lady's boudoir,

my lord's

kitchen, coming neighbouring midden. Now, knowing what we do know of the probability of the gefm theory of disease being a correct theory, there is nothing unreasonable in the idea of flies conveying the germs of disease from one locality to another. By the germ theory we understand the transmission of an infectious malady from the sick, or from other sources, to the healthy, by pollution of the atmosphere by noxious emanations, or by means of fomites imbued with speciflc poison. And germs sufficiently minute to float invisibly even in a humid atmosphere would, of course, be email enough to cling in indefinite numbers to a fly's proboscis or to a fly's foot. Notwithstanding the ipse dixit of our imperial sanitary commissioner, that we are all wrong in our views of cholera, and that it behoves us to "try back" ab initio, there are those who, with certainly some good reason, still believe or

direct from the adjacent dunghill,

or

the

that the germs of cholera may be introduced into the human system by the medium of food and water, and that the said

germs exist in

patients.

the diseased excretions of cholera-stricken

As remarked

satisfied with

one

above, flies unfortunately do not remain location, or for that matter with one kind of

food. As the bee flits from flower to flower in search of sweets, so

does the fly wander from

one

attractive morsel to another

;

and

dipteron lunching from your cutlet, committing suicide in your Boup, or becoming inebriated by the fumes of your brown sherry, may have breakfasted on the excreta of a victim of cholera, or on the scarcely less savoury discharge from the small-pox pock, or from phlegmonous erysipelas. This is not a pleasant idea, neither is it a far-fetched one, although, probably, it may not have occurred to every one. But, as Horatio was told, there are more things on heaven and earth than are dreamt of in the philosophy of the million. Even among ourselves, we are not so sure that the probability of flies conveying the germs of disease has been appreciated as it deserves. Dr. Moore has however called attention to this subject, and wo extract the following from his Medical and Sanitary Report for Rajpootana :?" When exposed by the vendors for sale, the meat is black with clustered flies, and a fly mny have recently come away from something not less dirty and disgusting than the evacuations of a person stricken with cholera. When passing the city (Ajmere) the other day, I watched a shop-keeper making koftas' for sale. He chopped the meat into a pulp, and while doing so was utterly regardless of the flies clustering on the material and on the instrument. In a very few minutes, the

saw

and

at

least

as

many flies

although good cookery

amalgamated

with the mince meat,

will cover

multitude of

a

doubt whether the addition of pepper, salt, and assisted by the ultimate roasting, would suffice to

vitality into the

the

provided

better

with

In

no

illustrated,

such

manner

than

by

ns

required or

to

wire gauze,

is this characteristic carelessness the

ordinary spectacle

of

a

native

other variety of ophthalmia callously permitting flies to cluster round the affected organ without even attemptone or

ing to drive them away. However sceptical some may be with regard to the dissemination of such maladies as cholera, dysentery, phlegmon, puerperal, small-pox, there can be no question with regard to the fact of flies conveying ophthalmia from one Mon. Eiselt, at the orphan asylum near person to another. Prague, examined the atmosphere of a ward during an epidemic of ophthalmia, and numbers of pus cells were found in the air passing through the aeroscope. When these cells, of the diameter ofj^ of an inch, were examined, they were fouud to contain still more minute sporules of living germinal matter. It can therefore be no matter for surprise that individuals are stricken with diseases of the zymotic variety, who have aparently not been exposed to contagion. Insects, such as flies, afford a " ready method" by which these maladies may be communicated. The eye is an organ especially attractive to flies, and the probability is not pleasant to think of, thut the diptera investigating the taste of the secretions of the corner of tho eyes may have very recently left the person of a sufferer Such accidents can, however, scarcely be from ophthalmia. avoided. With the protection of edible articles exposed for sale it is different; such protection is quite practicable, and wo rather wonder that none of our sanitary authorities" have was

written,

we

notice the

investigations of an

microscopist, who points out that when flies act, as they so often do, as if washing themselves, stroking their wings with their legs, and one leg with the other, they are busily engaged in freeing themselves from very minute atoms, which they greedily devour. It has also been found that flies in dirty localities, about latrines and foul drains, are more than ordinarily covered with these minute atoms,

It is therefore not unreasonable

to presume that these atoms may bo tho germs of disease, and that flies, in freeing themselves from such germs, and in devour-

ing them, are acting as natural preventive agents. It will scarcely be supposed that flies are of no utility in the universe, and with the exception of their being sometimes erroneously regarded as "scavengers," we have never heard a more probable utility assigned to these insects. But while thus of use there is additional evidence in tho American investigations, regarding the conveyance of the germs of disease from one place to another by flies, as we have noted in the previous remarks.

And in'

of such case, we think most sanitarians will Meat and metais are the two grout attractions to flies in

A walk through any bazar will show these articles of food, as Dr. Moore describes, blackened by flies. It would not nppear too great an interference with tha liberty of

measures.

Since the above

desirability

agree. Indian bazaar.

an

subject,

American

sins, I spice, even destroy the

for.

articles were

place protection, glass But the proverbial apathy or even net of other description. of the natives with regard to all these matters is such, that they will never of themselves initiate any precautionary the

them under some sort of

"

be introduced of the cholera germ, which may thus 4 kofta.' " Dr. Moore then proposes that the cleanliness

of the meat offered for sale should be

if dealers 111 such

1, 1875.

moved in the matter.

'

I

[July

THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.

^gg

j

Conveyance of Contagion by Flies.

Conveyance of Contagion by Flies. - PDF Download Free
3MB Sizes 0 Downloads 9 Views