WAR AGAINST RATS.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13378, 20 March 1909, Page 9

WAR AGAINST RATS.

BILL IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. United Press Association—By Electrio • Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, March 18. Sir Charles McLaren, M.P., has calculated that thero aro 40.000,000 rats in Great Brit—in, and that they cause damage annually to the extent of £15,000,000. Ho has introduced a Bill in tho House of Commons to mako provision for rat-extir-pation on an extensivo scaje.

Systematic war on rats was declared some little time ago in England, when an association for the destruction of such vermin was formed. Tho impulse came- from Denmark, where M. Emil Zuschlag, after investigating tho damage done by rats, brought home to his countrymen the advisability of concerted action, and founded the International Society for the Rational Destruttion of Rats. A writer in tho •'World's Work" last year declared that the loss caused annually by rats was so enormous as to be almost beyond belief. In England it was estimated at £10.000.000. London was last year afforded a striking example of the destructive powers of tho rat. A restatiraut proprietor w-ent bankrupt because rats 'hael invaded his place in such number- that most of his customers were driven away. . A German scientist named Neumann has tliscovered a bacillus fatal to rats, but harmless to other animals, and this method of extermination is being used) on the Continent.

CABLE NEWS.