THE RATS OF PARIS

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160795, 1 November 1920, Page 5

THE RATS OF PARIS

PREPARATIONS FOR A GAS' ' ATTACK. An attempt is shortly to he made to exterminate the rats, estimated at 8,090,000 or more, which infest the Paris underworld, and by their presence endanger the health of the population. Tire tenants are to. bo requested to put out their poubelles (dustbins) only for a very short period, and rubbish’ is to he collected more quickly than in the-past by the addition of another 300 dlustvans to the former service. In this way it is hoped the hungry rodents will ho persuaded to repair for provender to the open spaces outside the town. ' There they can be attacked more easily by fox terriers and by means of poisoned food, and, though not simultaneously, by a liberal diffusion of sulphurous acid and chloropicric gases. _ It is hop.ed that such a campaign, will exterminate the dreaded spreader of disease, but he is a wily beast (remarks the Times correspondent) and may yet repel the onslaught.- For it is a fact that he has his own method of defence when the poison gas approaches. Having advanced a certain distance up his burrow he swells himself cut, so as to block the passage. Only his tail is subject to gas effects. Only when his instinct tells him that the peril is past does Horatins move back from his post; and so his comrades are saved.