and if the filthy and in
every way dangerous pit under the privy be filled and the dry-earth
closet substituted one of the greatest sources of danger, especially in
the country and in towns with inadequate sewerage facilities, will be
done away with. After these things are done there remain only the
garbage cans and the rubbish heaps to look after.

Of course your neighbor must keep his place clean too, for his flies are
just as apt to come into your house as his, so the problem becomes one
for the whole community.

Almost all cities and many of the smaller towns have ordinances which
if enforced would afford adequate protection from flies, but they are
seldom if ever rigidly enforced and it yet remains for some enterprising
town to be able to advertise itself as a "speckless town" as well as a
"spotless town."

AN EXPERT'S OPINION

In a recent important bulletin issued by the Bureau of Entomology, Dr.
L.O. Howard discusses the economic importance of several of the insects
that carry disease. I wish to quote two or three paragraphs from the
pages in which he discusses the house-fly or typhoid fly to show the
opinion of this excellent authority in regard to this pest.

"Even if the typhoid or house fly were a creature difficult to
destroy, the general failure on the part of communities to make any
efforts whatever to reduce its numbers could properly be termed
criminal neglect; but since, as will be shown, it is comparatively
an easy matter to do away with the plague of flies, this neglect
becomes an evidence of ignorance or of a carelessness in regard to
disease-producing filth which to the informed mind constitutes a
serious blot on civilized methods of life."

On another page:

"We have thus shown that the typhoid or house fly is a general and
common carrier of pathogenic bacteria. It may carry typhoid fever,
Asiatic cholera, dysentery, cholera morbus, and other intestinal
diseases; it may carry the bacilli of tuberculosis and certain eye
diseases. It is the duty of every individual to guard so far as
possible against the occurrence of flies upon his premises. It is
the duty of every community, through its board of health, to spend
money in the warfare against this enemy of mankind. This duty is as
pronounced as though the community were attacked by bands of
ravenous wolves."

Again:

"A leading editorial in an