Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 79.djvu/146

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Milk House, showing the close proximity of a privy which was open to flies. The privy is the shed just behind the horse. The horse is standing in the drain from milk house, which was being used as a wallowing place for pigs.

a description not at all exaggerated, that the opportunities for a siege of typhoid during the months that this fly is abundant with us are most excellent. These conditions were found on the occasion of a visit to the range in the early part of last September, the trip being taken at the invitation of a member of the state board of health, who was anxious to have it made clear just how far the house fly was responsible for the epidemic.

We were told that the flies were more abundant than usual this year, the accuracy of which statement is open to doubt, for it is possible that observations in two successive seasons were made at different dates, flies naturally being more abundant in early September than in July. We believe, too, that the prevailing dryness this year may have caused the flies to congregate in larger numbers in the mining settlements where they found an abundance of moisture and filth as well. In this connection it may be said that, in riding over the range in an automobile at that time of the year, it was perfectly possible to realize that we were approaching a settlement, some time before it came in view by the odor wafted to our nostrils. Now, flies are gifted with a keen sense of smell, and it is a perfectly natural supposition that they are attracted from quite a distance, just as we were repelled, and that gath-