“Worse than disgusting: dangerous,” returned Dr. Strong, unmoved by her distaste. “A fly’s feet are more than likely to be covered with disease-bearing matter, which he leaves behind him.”
“Something ought to be done about Freeman’s manure-heap, next door. I’ll see to it,” announced Mr. Clyde.
“Doubtless you could report him for maintaining a nuisance,” admitted Dr. Strong; “in which case he might—er—conceivably retort upon you with your unscreened garbage-pails, which are hatcheries for another variety of fly.”
“That’s a beam in the eye for you, Tom,” said Grandma Sharpless.
“Meantime I’ll have the kitchen windows and doors screened at once,” declared Mrs. Clyde.
“That will help,” said Dr. Strong, “though it won’t cure. You can gain some idea, from this matter of the flies, how intricate a social problem health really is. No man sins to himself alone, in hygiene, and no man can thoroughly protect himself against the misdeeds of his neighbor. It’s true that there is such a thing as individual self-defense by a sort of personal fortifying of the body—I’ll take that up some other time—but it’s very limited. You can carry the fight into the enemy’s country and eradicate the evil conditions that threaten all, only by identifying yourself with your environment, and waging war on that basis. Mr. Clyde, do you know anything about the row of wooden tenements in the adjoining alley?”
“Saddler’s Shacks? Not much, except that a lot of Italians live there.”
“Some live; some die. The whole settlement is a scandal of overcrowding, dirt, and disease. I’ve made out a little local health report of the place, for the year. Of course, it’s incomplete; but it’s significant. Look it over.”
Mr. Clyde read aloud as follows:—
| Diphtheria | 11 cases | 2 deaths |
| Measles | 20 | 1 |
| Typhoid fever | 4 | 2 |
| Scarlet fever | 13 | 1 |
| Whooping-cough | 20 | 3 |
| Acute intestinal trouble | 45 | 10 |
| Influenza | 16 | 1 |
| Tuberculosis | 6 | 1 |
| Pneumonia | 9 | 4 |