FLIES AND FLU.
Page 18
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By "The Inspector."
IT IS VERY SELDOM that I can be tempted to trust myself behind a horse, even if the man at the helm has the reputation of being a most accomplished whip. Needs must when the devil drives, however, and in our spiritless conditionto-day few of us can afford to despise the offer of a lift if a country railway station be four or five-miles-away, and the alternative appears to be the wearing out of expensive shoe leather. Not only did such a chance befall me a few days ago, but I was even persuaded to take the reins myself, and, with the exception that I have never yet succeeded in mastering my feelings of incapacity to counter any decision on the part ofthe hay motor to reverse, .1 found it tolerably easy to keep the whole contrivance, trap and horse alike, on the right side of the road, and to avoid actual collision with other road users.
The trip was illuminating in many ways, and in particular I was treated to a learned dissertation by the proprietor of the vehicle on the new activities of flies] My friend declared that, until the petrol restrictions began to appear, the fly was being gradnallY, but effectively, driven from the vicinity of all highways which carried anything considerable in the way of motor traffic. Until a year or two ago, he said,. it had become quite delightful to drive a horse on such roads, provided, of course, that one were skilful enough to control the animal amidst other fast-moving traffic. The flies which surround a sweltering horse, as a rule, were almost conspicuous by their absence, the driver benefiting accordingly..
With ears driven off the road, again, hoWever, I had . optical evidence of arenewed offensive on the part of these pests, and clouds of -them pestered the equine head, and those that were crowded out, as it were, from this seasonable occupation promptly bestowed their attention upon the human occupants of the trap. My companion definitely assured me that allhorse owners would confirm his statement, that the fumes of petrol exhausts were in a fair way, a year or two ago, to drive the fly entirely away from motor-used roadways, and he even went further in declaring that cattle in the hot weather had already learned to come to the hedgerows where they were free from the pests, up to 100 yards away from the road.
If there be truth in this assertion, which has pOssibly passed unnoticed by the majority of motorists, it is a remarkable illustration of the Manner in which our habits in the more,orclinary conditions of our life are changed almost imperceptibly owing to the introduetion of new ways of doing things, of novel means of accomplishing our daily, and ordinary tasks. That the fly has returned to the highway is quite evident, • and, as a matter of fact, the recent spell of very hot weather has brought with it in certain districts what appears to me to be an unusual swarm of flies and insects which, apart from their biting propensitie, are "extremely irritating.
B40
Concurrently with the diminution of motor-vehicle tauffie on the highwaS,s, there is, in this fourth year of war, greatly increased empleyment of internalcombustion engines in various forms on theland. Judging by the happy-go-lucky performances of a number of these agricultural tractors in the matter of visible exhaust and •other atmospheric effects, probably due to excess lubricating oil, I surmise that the erstwhile agriculturally-minded. fly may have made up his mind that the opeh countryside is no longer a, fit and proper place As a hunting ground. He may have decided to strike 'for fresh fields and pastures new, as he undoubtedly did when the 'roads were rendered no longer possible for him. I imagine; however, the number -of tractors working in the eountry is .altogether" insufficient to account for a general exodus of this kind, yet I am not sufficient of a biologist to assert that there -has been no move in the way suggested.
It would probably be altogether too wild a flight. of fancy to suggest that this disturbance:of insect life can be in any way looked to as the cause of the present influenza epidemic, but I .recall quite well 'that when a similar "visitation took place some 20 years ago, • the fly-e--which particular sort I do not remember—was publicly billed as the cause of much of the trouble, and in the absence Of any p.—. Able explanation of the present epidemic, it, at any rate, pleases me to imagine that something of the sort may be happening now. The only flaw in this ingenious supposition is that the whole thing is supposed to have originated in neutral cetultry where presumably no Such disturbing conditions present themselves I Re the case as it may, the present wave of illness. which, although so very widespread, at the time of writing, fortunately does not appear to be of a very dangerous nature, is causing exceptional dislocation of all our national, activities, as well, it is conSoling to learn, as those of our enemies. It is surely a remarkable thought that at a time when more than half the world is at war, when the demands for man power and woman power are more insistent than ever, a quite 'perceptible slowing up of the pace in ,,all belligerent countries has been produced midst friend and foe alike, by a germ soinsignificant in itself that its name and nature have not even been detected.It forces one to wonder if the wars of the future may net be rendered more dreadful. than the present one by the scientific distribution of germs of varying capacity. Were such a possibility to hand now, no thought of Hague Conventions or Red Cross restrictions would be likely to restrain the scientific criminals to whom we are opposed. The one consoling-thought is that they will probably be afraid of their own inability to control the spread of any such trouble in the camp or the cOuntry, Anyway, here's hoping that we shall shake it off soon. We can, at any rate, not accuse Spain of a breach of neutrality, for she has treated us both alike.