Cleansing Superintendents' Conference.
Page 19
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Healthy Arguments in Support of Motor Vehicles.
Mr. D. WWI, chief of the cleansing department of the Glasgow Corporation, who took the chair as President --for the second time—of the Institute of Cleansing Superintendents, on the occasion of the twelfth annual congress, which was held at Glasgow last week, referred in his presidential address to some of the 63 papers that had been read at the institute's annual congress meetings. Two of these, on the subject,of " Motor vehicles in relation to cleansing work," read at Glasgow and Salford, were by the Editor of "THE COMMEISCIAL 'MOTOR."
We have only space at our disposal to reproduce one paper at length, but it is not inappropriate that we should quote, by way of preface, from the paper on " The functions of a cleansing department in relation to publichealth administration,' by Dr. A. K. Chalmers, the medical officer of health for Glasgow, who, in the course of a most-instructive contribution, said:—
" The argument against such accumulations --volumes of putrescible matter—in the past was founded largely on the offensive emanations which arose from them, or the possibility that soakage from them might pollute a water supply. Now all these objections have been reinforced by the knowledge that they afford suitable breeding places for flies, and this is especially true of stable accumulations, and the domestic fly has we know of late obtained an evil reputation as a carrier of offensive matter and of disease.
" Remember that the surfaces of much of the food stuff of a household, but especially the food stuffs which are of animal origin, including milk, are excellent breeding grounds for micro-organic life (that form of life which we formerly thought was mainly carried by wind currents, and deposited along with dust to which it adheres), that in most houses, but especially in small houses, such food is of necessity kept uncovered on a shelf, or in the kitchen press, i.e., in the warmest part of the house, and you will readily realise both the difficulty and the importance of protecting it from fly infection. Here, then, it seems to me, you may derive a new impetus towards still greater efficiency in the methods of public cleansing, for while a direct campaign against flies may savour of the impossible, you can direct your energies against their breeding places, and so accomplish much towards diminution in their numbers. This is especially true of collections of horse manure, which in respect of flies plays much the same part in affording facilities for breeding, which the tropical swamp affords to the young of the mosquito."