Human Fly

How does a fly feel when sprayed with D.D.T.?

A laboratory worker (anonymous) who set out to answer this inhuman question reported the fly's feelings in the current British Medical Journal.

A year ago, experimenting to find out whether the potent insecticide would irritate human skin, the 30-year-old Briton painted his hands with D.D.T. dissolved in acetone. Then he kneaded some dough heavily impregnated with it. When his skin seemed none the worse, he considered the experiment complete, went on to other things. A few days later his arms and legs began to feel heavy. Soon they began to ache violently and "spasms of extreme nervous tension" racked his body. For ten weeks, doctors were baffled.

When it finally dawned on them that D.D.T. was the root of the trouble,* the worried patient relaxed and was able to go to work. Unlike the doomed fly, his health gradually returned. But even now, a year later, he is still not willing to admit that he is in the pink.

Through experiments performed on animals D.D.T. is known to be a nerve poison easily absorbed through the skin. Used with discretion, it is not dangerous.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.