DEADLY RAT SCOURGE.

Northern Advocate, 17 November 1919, Page 3

DEADLY RAT SCOURGE.

CAUSE OF TRENCH FEVER, PLAGUE, AND PROBABLY OF INFLUENZA.

CAMPAIGN OF PREVENTION,

The leading scientific authority on < rats, Mr M. A. C Hinton has in pre- l paration at the British Museum (Na- ( tural History section) an exhibit by which the trustees hope to rouse municipal authorities, and the nation j at large, to a sense of the public peril J that is involved in the existing and * increasing numbers of those vermin. < To a representative of the "Daily * Chronicle," Mr Hinton said: "People commonly base their pleas for th e extermination of rats on the loss caused by them to our food supplies, and obviously that loss represents* an annual value of many .millions of pounds sterling. "But the loss of food i s comparatively of little moment; the consideration of overwhelming importance is the danger involved in human life. Take this tremendous fact: rats have killed 12,000,000 people in India since 1900. "The matter does not end with the heavy mortality caused by plague in India and other countries (and ( mind, another Plague of London, which was undoubtedly th e work of rats and mice, might occur at any time.) RATS AS DISEASE CARRIERS. "It may now publicly be stated," continued Mr Hinton, "that rats wer e responsible for the trench fever from which our soldiers suffered. Rats are probably responsible also —but proof is not yet forthcoming—for the spread of influenza. "Rats and mice are the principal agents in the dissemination of trichinosis; they are also under conviction as regards foot-and-mouth disease, swin c fever, and dysentery." "Are you satisfied with the measures that we are making against the rat?" "By no means," replied Mr Hinton. "Just as the public mind mistates th e main mischief as a food loss t so it misstates the remedy or destruction- It is imperatively necessary to employ rat-catchers, and to tak c all other available steps, for reducing the rate population. But don't imagine that the remedy is destruction; the remedy is prevention. "In all countries and ages crusades of destruction have been carried through, but they never have produced and never can realise more than partial and temporary results. The rat's enormous reproductive powers defy man's most strenuous destructive efforts. SIX LITTERS IN A YEAR. "At the age of eight weeks a rat may have young, and there is nothing ! uncommon in ten at a litter and six litters in a year- In the long run the numbers of rats are determined by ; the amount of available food and '. shelter. * "The nation must take systematic ' measures to restrict the available , food and shelter. Granaries, barns, ' restaurants and all other food stores must be made absolutely rat-proof, refuse must be systematically destroy- ; ed, drains must be protected, ships ' must be fumigated, and ' adequate measures must be taken in the case c of railways, docks, and quays. " "Rucker has stated that a pair of rats are theoretically capable of producing in five years 940,369,909,752 rats. And a London authority is said to I have been destroying vermin at a 2 cost of Is 82d per rat!"