Flies, Mosquitoes, Rats
Flies, mosquitoes, and rats as spreaders of disease have been attacked with avidity by women.
“The anti-fly campaigning is a movement of more far-reaching importance and more promising of prolonged life and freedom from disease than perhaps any other single activity going forward in the community,” said Mayor Baker of Cleveland recently in a letter to the city council.
The leader in the effort for a “flyless city of Cleveland” has been Jean Dawson, professor of civic biology at the Normal School. In her work emphasis was as usual these days laid on prevention, and breeding places were attacked. As it had been estimated that a single pair of flies is capable of reproducing two million young flies, the necessity of such a movement was evident. Owners of stables throughout Cleveland were compelled to clean-up, and keep clean, their premises. The schools were utilized in an educational campaign and various civic bodies together with the health officials eagerly coöperated.
The interesting thing about this campaign in Cleveland is that it started before the flies hatched; in fact, it was directed against the winter flies before they could lay their eggs. Miss Dawson issued a “fly-catechism” which helped to win the coöperation of the women of the city in her effort to eliminate the pest.
The occasional threat of bubonic plague and its actual appearance now and then in port cities draws the serious attention of the public to the necessity for the elimination of the rat. “Starve the rat and let him go” is the war cry of women in New Orleans as well as in other cities, especially as it becomes recognized that it is not merely the rat but the fleas which live upon it which are carriers of disease.