NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS.

Auckland Star, Issue 66, 19 March 1900, Page 2

NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS.

DIRECTIONS TO HOUSEHOLDERS

The following circular has been

printed as a, handbill for public distribution in Sydney:— "Plague is present in Sydney. It has been introduced by diseased rats. It has attacked only three persons at present, but there is great danger of its spreading. If it does spread it will be mainly by diseased rats. Great, efforts must therefore be at once made by municipal councils and by individual householders to kill all rats. This war must be persistently and steadily carried on. It must extend to every neighbourhood, as well as to those where the rats are known to be infected, for the following reason: —As soon as rats find they are dying in numbers, or are being trapped and killed, in any place they inhabit, they leave that place and go to some other, I there are already rats at the latter place these become infected by the immigrants, and then disperse in their turn, thus carrying the disease still further. All rats, therefore, must be exterminated as far as possible, and the attack upon them should be simultaneous in the healthy and infected neighbourhoods. "The following hints should be carefully read:—lt is most necessary that rats should be kept out of dwellings. Take care that doors are not broken near the ground, and close them at uight; see that all gullies are effectually trapped; see that every house connected with the sewers is so connected according to the regulations of the Board of Water Supply and Sewerage, and that the traps are in good order, so that rats cannot get past them. "2. Gather up with scrupulous care all fragments of food, bones, vegetables, potato-peelings, corn, etc., etc., and either burn them at once behind the kitchen fire, or place them in a securely covered dirt-box; as far as possible also leave no water about where rats can get at it. Rats are always looking for food, and they will not stay where none is to be found. "3. Lastly, take measures to kill any rats which happen to reach the premises. Poison is the best means, and nothing is better than arsenic, which is sold as "rough on rats" and under other names. It should never be spread on bread and butter, which might attract children, or on any similar food. It should be mixed with a little meal and water. Oil of aniseed, and an oil called oil of rhodium, are said to be specially attractive to rats, and a little may be mixed with the meal Or smeared on traps. Set traps also. Use clogs, too; dogs very rarely indeed have suffered from plague, and at all events it is not only diseased rats which are to be destroyed, but also healthy ones. Dead rats found about premises should not be touched until they have first been scalded with boiling water where they lie; they should then not be taken up in the hands, but with tongs; they should be burnt. "Extermination of rats is the most important thing to be attempted at this time. Very good reason has been shown for thinking that the plague spread in Indian cities not so much in proportion to < overcrowding nor to filth, as in proportion to the facilities wdiich houses afforded by their construction for entrance of rats to dwelling-rooms. "Still it must be remembered that although rats may begin an epidemic of plague in man they are by no means the only carriers of the contagion. Plague is a fever. Like other fevers it is aided in its attacks by filthy surroundings, and probably its infection is fostered by filthy heaps of neglected and putrifying material and by filthy earth. "Very great and special pains must therefore be taken by householders to thoroughly cleanse their houses internally, their yards, their gutters, and their drains. Municipal authorities should increase their staff of scavengers and take, care that all the minor nuisances (which at present are subject to daily complaint to this department) are abated forthwith and prevented from recurring. They should also regularly collect and destroy filth, sweep and flush road and other gutters under thir control, and take care that sewers within their jurisdiction are often flushed. Municipal authorities are seldom provided with large staffs, and nuisances sometimes exist for long before they are detected and dealt with. Every ratepayer should make a point therefore of reporting every nuisance which ho observes in his district to the Council clerk, who represents the Council, which latter is the local authority under the Public Health Act for the district it serves. It has full Ifegal power to deal with and prevent all nuisances either by its own action or through the police courts. Such complaints should not be addressed to this

department. It cannot execute detail work for the whole colony.. This is the duty of local authorities within their several districts or municipalites. DISINFECTANTS. "Places in which there is reason to believe rats are dying, or have died, of disease are to be watered with a live per cent, solution of sulphuric acid (called also oil of vitrol). Underneath" wharves, tho surface of wharves, the lower part- of the walls and ihe' wooden or earthen floors of goods sheds, the sowers, and the surface of adjacent soil, and of streets in the infected neighbourhood, should be daily watered with this solution, or saturated by means of pumps, etc., etc. . ~

"For household use chloride of lime, mixed with water in the proportion of half a pound to the gallon, may be used for all purposes within and outside, or carbolic acid and the wellknown tarry disinfectants suitably diluted according to instructions with which they are sold. The poore# inhabitants 'should be supplied by the local authority for the district (the Municipal Council) free of cost, and the sanitary inspectors should see that the disinfectant is properly applied.