- Email: [email protected]
Fighting the Fly.
1224
forget that it was for usefulness in peace that theysoon as the warm weather returns the fly seeks out the dung-heap and the dust-bin wherein to lay were designed, founded, and supported in the past. are there to relieve the civil They suffering among eggs; the eggs soon hatch out, the whole lifeno less than ] were and the before, population they history of the maggot is accomplished in a couple need of the ! civil population for their aid isof weeks, and generation follows generation until not lessened by war. Our industries continue,the kitchens and messes of camps and the dwelling-
though dislocated and diverted
in many instances in order that the needs of the army may be supplied. The younger men have gone, but the older and weaker men and the women and children remain, a great number of women having taken the places of men in operations in which accident and disablement from various causes are apt to occur. The work done for those directly the victims of war is in addition to, and not in substitution for, the hospitals’ normal functions. Let us not then, even though war charities rightly claim our the attention, neglect obligation of benevolence in other directions. Let us rather remember that the hospitals are still working amidst difficulties even greater than those to which they are accustomed, and performing their normal tasks with revenues more insufficient and more precarious than before. The future is uncertain. The hospitals desire to face it with no burden of debt to hamper their energies in the future, but " war-time economy with them is not a matter of retrenchment involving self-denial. Their normal life is regulated with the strictest frugality, and the only method of saving open to them is to reduce the number of the patients whom they treat. This, we all hope, they will never be compelled to do, for the demand for their aid increases as London grows. Hope, however, without active intervention will effect nothing, and within a few days the Metropolitan Hospital Sunday Fund will afford an opportunity for all to intervene. The appeal is to all, without distinction of rank or wealth. The richest and the poorest can give according to their means, and many of the latter will be rewarded by the feeling that they are making part repayment of The indebtedness of the a personal obligation. to has never been greater than the hospitals public
rooms
of the poor
swarm
with the unsavoury brood.
Many measures have been suggested and tried for meeting the evil, some applicable to one stage of the fly’s life-history, some to another. To tap the supply at its source and to destroy all the hibernating larvae and insects by one great campaign would at first sight seem to be the measure most deserving of effort, but for this purpose the winter habitat must be accurately known, and, as we have seen, this information is not yet ours. Short of this, the larvae maybe destroyed in their breeding-grounds before they have become a source of danger to the community. Or, when the breeding cannot be, or has not been, controlled, the adult fly may be
trapped or poisoned; if not prevented from reaching offal
killed it may be and excreta and so becoming infected, or from settling on food and on the helpless infant and sick person, and passing on to them the infective material which it has collected. In rural districts the excreta of horses and cattle so greatly exceed in quantity the other breeding-grounds of the fly that the manure-heap is the principal object to be dealt with. In England farms are for the most part scattered evenly over the country, and there is no great accumulation of manure from this source; in rural France human life is all concentrated in the villages, each house in the village is a farm and has its own manureheap, and the dwelling rooms are therefore in August black with flies which are accepted as the ordinary gift of summer. At the present time, too, not only the normal rural inhabitant but the whole population of military camps at home and abroad exposed to inconvenience and risk from this Manure is too valuable a product to source. be lightly destroyed, and means must be sought to to-day. secure the destruction of the larvae without spoiling the fertilising properties of the manure itself, A simple and effective method is to surround the the manure-heap with a ring of dry straw into which WITH the return of the summer the fly comes the mature larvae migrate to pupate, when they can into its heritage and, unless it is to be left in be swept up twice a week and cremated with the undisputed possession, much time and thought straw. In a recent publicationProfessor R. must be given to the means for dealing with this BLANCHARD, of Paris, summarises the various pest and its attendant evils. In winter under a chemical agents which have been employed for low average temperature the house-fly breeds with this purpose chiefly in America. Chloride of lime difficulty and even its usual mode of survival, is efficient, but makes the manure unusable. Borax whether as pupa or fully-formed insect, is still a kills the larvae apparently without damaging the The view more generally manure, but is expensive and still upon its trial. matter of discussion. held is that the adult fly survives the winter in Professor BLANCHARD himself favours a mechanical warm unswept corners, and more than this, method, which also comes from America, in which Professor F. M. HOWLETT demonstrated quite the manure is raised on a platform above a shallow recently in the " fly-room " of the Imperial College concrete basin. , Water is pumped periodically upon at South Kensington that the house-fly can continue the pile to favour fermentation, and to avoid the to breed in an ordinary room during the winter moist fermenting stuff the larvae migrate from the months. But on the other side of the Atlantic pile, fall into the basin, and are drowned. An many years of observation have led Dr. L. O. 1 La Lutte contre La Mouche. Par Professor R. Blanchard. Ligue HOWARD to the belief that it is the pupa which Sanitaire Française, Bulletin No. 5. Paris: 72, Rue de Rome. Price as ’ 2 francs. this However be, may usually survives. "
Fighting
Fly.
is
’
1225 overflow from the basin leads into a pit whence the water is pumped, and this becomes
Medical Practitioners and the
valuable source of liquid Service Acts. A method of destruction was manure. physical ’, WE publish this week a copy of a circular letter touched on by Lieutenant-Colonel S. M. COPEMAN addressed to all members of the medical profession in an interesting paper in the last issue of Sir ALFRED KEOGH, Director-General of the Whilst experimenting with the by THE LANCET. Medical Service, in which he draws attention Army lethal effect of tetra-chlor-ethane on the larvae to the particular provisions of the Military Service in a tightly packed heap, Colonel COPEMAN and of the Regulations made thereunder, which Acts, found that the larvae were also dead in a concern the medical profession. A memorandum .control heap to which the chemical had not been is enclosed with this letter setting out the terms applied. He then directed his attention to the of the national organisation of the medical protemperature in the interior of the manure-heap, fession in relation to the needs of the navy, the and found it to average 70° C. in the first few army, and the civilian population, and the document, days after the heap had been made, and at the which will be found on p. 1237 of this issue, should end of a fortnight to be still in the neighbourclear up the difficulties in which many of our hood of 60° C. Professor HOWLETT undertook an readers have found themselves. inquiry as to the lethal temperature for fly larvæ and he was able to state that they would hardly survive long at a temp erature above 41° C. Here, then, is the basis of a purely physical method of dealing with the larvee, simple and inexpensive. Colonel COPEMAN believes that the close packing "Ne quid nimis." has no deleterious effect on the fertilising power of the manure, and this, if confirmed, conTHE PETROL CENSUS. stitutes a further recommendation for this ON or before Tuesday, June 20th, every medical method. practitioner using or keeping motor spirit for The problem of dealing with the larvæ naturally the purpose of supplying motive power to motorvaries according as the neighbourhood is an urban cars and motor-cycles kept for the purpose of his or a rural one. In urban districts where there is profession," is required to make a return stating little storage of horse manure and human excreta (1) his registration number ; (2) whether he keeps a motor-car or a motor-cycle ; (3) his average conare carried away by water, the fly-breeding princisumption of motor spirit per month during the in the domestic house and takes refuse, pally place three months ending April 30th, 1916; (4) his it is the decaying remnants of food, animal and stock of motor (5) his estimated present vegetable, to which attention must be directed. In requirements of motor spirit; month until spirit per the ideal household there is little waste, nothing the end of 1916; and (6) the purposes other that can be used as food for man or flies is thrown than professional for which he uses his car. away, and any organic residue is burned, leaving Failure to make the return is not only a only the dry ash to be removed. This is the end summary offence against the Defence of the to be aimed at, both in peace and war time, Realm (Consolidation) Regulations, 1914, but, in but especially now that economy in food is case it is found necessary to restrict the sale of one of the citizen’s first duties. Frankly, it is petrol or other motor spirit, any person liable to to be that such home destruction make a return and who fails to do so will be unable hardly hoped to obtain further supplies. The prescribed form for of organic matter can be complete; gas-cooking the return can be obtained at any money making makes it more difficult. The dustbin and sanitary order office in the United Kingdom, and the pail will still contain material to attract the fly particular form prepared for medical practitioners and suitable for fly-breeding. There is now the is known as Petrol Form 2. Other forms have choice between preventing the fly’s access to this been prepared for other classes of users, but material by means of well-fitting covers, or allow- with these we are not concerned at the moment. ing the fly to lay its eggs and then removing the Whether taking stock of petrol, which ought to material for cremation before the larvae have had have been done months ago, will have any appretime to mature. A recent writer, Mr. G. H. HARDY, ciable effect in removing the harassing conditions under which country practitioners at present obtain has advocated the latter as the better method, since their supply-and some of them can obtain no the female fly, if allowed to lay in the bin or supply at all-is doubtful. Much to the point was pail, will do so in preference to other localities the letter sent out to garage owners last week by in the house or its surroundings. The resulting the Petrol Subcommittee, in which an attempt brood then meets its certain doom at the hands was made to regulate the priority of the supply of the municipal authority which collects the of petrol according to a classified list. In this house-refuse not less frequently than twice a classification it is an encouraging sign to see that week. To make assurance doubly sure the scheme the requirements of medical practitioners are placed immediately after the essential requirements of the may go further and provide the pail lids with a Government and the carriage of munitions and the trap whereby the flies may enter and not escape to materials for munitions of war, and before the carry particles of filth into the house again. On requirements of fire-brigades, ambulances, police, one or other of the very varying lines of policy and local government authorities, and all comadvocated we trust that success will be achieved mercial and pleasure cars. This is as it should be; and the breeding of the fly checked. but the classification will be of little use if the at the
same
time
a
Military
Annotations.
forget that it was for usefulness in peace that theysoon as the warm weather returns the fly seeks out the dung-heap and the dust-bin wherein to lay were designed, founded, and supported in the past. are there to relieve the civil They suffering among eggs; the eggs soon hatch out, the whole lifeno less than ] were and the before, population they history of the maggot is accomplished in a couple need of the ! civil population for their aid isof weeks, and generation follows generation until not lessened by war. Our industries continue,the kitchens and messes of camps and the dwelling-
though dislocated and diverted
in many instances in order that the needs of the army may be supplied. The younger men have gone, but the older and weaker men and the women and children remain, a great number of women having taken the places of men in operations in which accident and disablement from various causes are apt to occur. The work done for those directly the victims of war is in addition to, and not in substitution for, the hospitals’ normal functions. Let us not then, even though war charities rightly claim our the attention, neglect obligation of benevolence in other directions. Let us rather remember that the hospitals are still working amidst difficulties even greater than those to which they are accustomed, and performing their normal tasks with revenues more insufficient and more precarious than before. The future is uncertain. The hospitals desire to face it with no burden of debt to hamper their energies in the future, but " war-time economy with them is not a matter of retrenchment involving self-denial. Their normal life is regulated with the strictest frugality, and the only method of saving open to them is to reduce the number of the patients whom they treat. This, we all hope, they will never be compelled to do, for the demand for their aid increases as London grows. Hope, however, without active intervention will effect nothing, and within a few days the Metropolitan Hospital Sunday Fund will afford an opportunity for all to intervene. The appeal is to all, without distinction of rank or wealth. The richest and the poorest can give according to their means, and many of the latter will be rewarded by the feeling that they are making part repayment of The indebtedness of the a personal obligation. to has never been greater than the hospitals public
rooms
of the poor
swarm
with the unsavoury brood.
Many measures have been suggested and tried for meeting the evil, some applicable to one stage of the fly’s life-history, some to another. To tap the supply at its source and to destroy all the hibernating larvae and insects by one great campaign would at first sight seem to be the measure most deserving of effort, but for this purpose the winter habitat must be accurately known, and, as we have seen, this information is not yet ours. Short of this, the larvae maybe destroyed in their breeding-grounds before they have become a source of danger to the community. Or, when the breeding cannot be, or has not been, controlled, the adult fly may be
trapped or poisoned; if not prevented from reaching offal
killed it may be and excreta and so becoming infected, or from settling on food and on the helpless infant and sick person, and passing on to them the infective material which it has collected. In rural districts the excreta of horses and cattle so greatly exceed in quantity the other breeding-grounds of the fly that the manure-heap is the principal object to be dealt with. In England farms are for the most part scattered evenly over the country, and there is no great accumulation of manure from this source; in rural France human life is all concentrated in the villages, each house in the village is a farm and has its own manureheap, and the dwelling rooms are therefore in August black with flies which are accepted as the ordinary gift of summer. At the present time, too, not only the normal rural inhabitant but the whole population of military camps at home and abroad exposed to inconvenience and risk from this Manure is too valuable a product to source. be lightly destroyed, and means must be sought to to-day. secure the destruction of the larvae without spoiling the fertilising properties of the manure itself, A simple and effective method is to surround the the manure-heap with a ring of dry straw into which WITH the return of the summer the fly comes the mature larvae migrate to pupate, when they can into its heritage and, unless it is to be left in be swept up twice a week and cremated with the undisputed possession, much time and thought straw. In a recent publicationProfessor R. must be given to the means for dealing with this BLANCHARD, of Paris, summarises the various pest and its attendant evils. In winter under a chemical agents which have been employed for low average temperature the house-fly breeds with this purpose chiefly in America. Chloride of lime difficulty and even its usual mode of survival, is efficient, but makes the manure unusable. Borax whether as pupa or fully-formed insect, is still a kills the larvae apparently without damaging the The view more generally manure, but is expensive and still upon its trial. matter of discussion. held is that the adult fly survives the winter in Professor BLANCHARD himself favours a mechanical warm unswept corners, and more than this, method, which also comes from America, in which Professor F. M. HOWLETT demonstrated quite the manure is raised on a platform above a shallow recently in the " fly-room " of the Imperial College concrete basin. , Water is pumped periodically upon at South Kensington that the house-fly can continue the pile to favour fermentation, and to avoid the to breed in an ordinary room during the winter moist fermenting stuff the larvae migrate from the months. But on the other side of the Atlantic pile, fall into the basin, and are drowned. An many years of observation have led Dr. L. O. 1 La Lutte contre La Mouche. Par Professor R. Blanchard. Ligue HOWARD to the belief that it is the pupa which Sanitaire Française, Bulletin No. 5. Paris: 72, Rue de Rome. Price as ’ 2 francs. this However be, may usually survives. "
Fighting
Fly.
is
’
1225 overflow from the basin leads into a pit whence the water is pumped, and this becomes
Medical Practitioners and the
valuable source of liquid Service Acts. A method of destruction was manure. physical ’, WE publish this week a copy of a circular letter touched on by Lieutenant-Colonel S. M. COPEMAN addressed to all members of the medical profession in an interesting paper in the last issue of Sir ALFRED KEOGH, Director-General of the Whilst experimenting with the by THE LANCET. Medical Service, in which he draws attention Army lethal effect of tetra-chlor-ethane on the larvae to the particular provisions of the Military Service in a tightly packed heap, Colonel COPEMAN and of the Regulations made thereunder, which Acts, found that the larvae were also dead in a concern the medical profession. A memorandum .control heap to which the chemical had not been is enclosed with this letter setting out the terms applied. He then directed his attention to the of the national organisation of the medical protemperature in the interior of the manure-heap, fession in relation to the needs of the navy, the and found it to average 70° C. in the first few army, and the civilian population, and the document, days after the heap had been made, and at the which will be found on p. 1237 of this issue, should end of a fortnight to be still in the neighbourclear up the difficulties in which many of our hood of 60° C. Professor HOWLETT undertook an readers have found themselves. inquiry as to the lethal temperature for fly larvæ and he was able to state that they would hardly survive long at a temp erature above 41° C. Here, then, is the basis of a purely physical method of dealing with the larvee, simple and inexpensive. Colonel COPEMAN believes that the close packing "Ne quid nimis." has no deleterious effect on the fertilising power of the manure, and this, if confirmed, conTHE PETROL CENSUS. stitutes a further recommendation for this ON or before Tuesday, June 20th, every medical method. practitioner using or keeping motor spirit for The problem of dealing with the larvæ naturally the purpose of supplying motive power to motorvaries according as the neighbourhood is an urban cars and motor-cycles kept for the purpose of his or a rural one. In urban districts where there is profession," is required to make a return stating little storage of horse manure and human excreta (1) his registration number ; (2) whether he keeps a motor-car or a motor-cycle ; (3) his average conare carried away by water, the fly-breeding princisumption of motor spirit per month during the in the domestic house and takes refuse, pally place three months ending April 30th, 1916; (4) his it is the decaying remnants of food, animal and stock of motor (5) his estimated present vegetable, to which attention must be directed. In requirements of motor spirit; month until spirit per the ideal household there is little waste, nothing the end of 1916; and (6) the purposes other that can be used as food for man or flies is thrown than professional for which he uses his car. away, and any organic residue is burned, leaving Failure to make the return is not only a only the dry ash to be removed. This is the end summary offence against the Defence of the to be aimed at, both in peace and war time, Realm (Consolidation) Regulations, 1914, but, in but especially now that economy in food is case it is found necessary to restrict the sale of one of the citizen’s first duties. Frankly, it is petrol or other motor spirit, any person liable to to be that such home destruction make a return and who fails to do so will be unable hardly hoped to obtain further supplies. The prescribed form for of organic matter can be complete; gas-cooking the return can be obtained at any money making makes it more difficult. The dustbin and sanitary order office in the United Kingdom, and the pail will still contain material to attract the fly particular form prepared for medical practitioners and suitable for fly-breeding. There is now the is known as Petrol Form 2. Other forms have choice between preventing the fly’s access to this been prepared for other classes of users, but material by means of well-fitting covers, or allow- with these we are not concerned at the moment. ing the fly to lay its eggs and then removing the Whether taking stock of petrol, which ought to material for cremation before the larvae have had have been done months ago, will have any appretime to mature. A recent writer, Mr. G. H. HARDY, ciable effect in removing the harassing conditions under which country practitioners at present obtain has advocated the latter as the better method, since their supply-and some of them can obtain no the female fly, if allowed to lay in the bin or supply at all-is doubtful. Much to the point was pail, will do so in preference to other localities the letter sent out to garage owners last week by in the house or its surroundings. The resulting the Petrol Subcommittee, in which an attempt brood then meets its certain doom at the hands was made to regulate the priority of the supply of the municipal authority which collects the of petrol according to a classified list. In this house-refuse not less frequently than twice a classification it is an encouraging sign to see that week. To make assurance doubly sure the scheme the requirements of medical practitioners are placed immediately after the essential requirements of the may go further and provide the pail lids with a Government and the carriage of munitions and the trap whereby the flies may enter and not escape to materials for munitions of war, and before the carry particles of filth into the house again. On requirements of fire-brigades, ambulances, police, one or other of the very varying lines of policy and local government authorities, and all comadvocated we trust that success will be achieved mercial and pleasure cars. This is as it should be; and the breeding of the fly checked. but the classification will be of little use if the at the
same
time
a
Military
Annotations.