§ 26. Mr. CHARLES BATHURSTasked the President of the Local Government Board if his attention has been called to the warning recently addressed to the public by 123 medical officers of health as to the prevalence during the summer months of infantile enteritis and other diseases traceable to the common housefly, and the increased human mortality consequent thereon; and whether the Board is taking any and, if any, what steps to effect the reduction of the fly population and of the diseases caused thereby?
§ The PRESIDENT of the LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. Herbert Samuel)The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. As regards the last part of the question, the Local Government Board are fully alive to the importance of this matter. They have issued six reports on flies as carriers of infection; they have warned local authorities by circular, both in 1911 and 1913, of the dangers of allowing accumulations of refuse which may form breeding grounds for flies to remain in their districts; and they have for some time been urging individual local authorities who are not dealing satisfactorily with the refuse of their districts to improve their methods.