DAMAGE BY RATS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1047, 9 February 1911, Page 5

DAMAGE BY RATS.

A YEAR IN ENGLAND AND ■-.: ■:; - ■'. ■•WALES..'.''., Br Telegraph—Press A»soci»tlon—Copyright. ;. ■', ' '•■ '. London, February,7. The well-known medical man, .Sir James Crichton-Browne, ■ speaking at. a conference at tho Guildhall to discuss tho. question of ; tho rat pest, said rats, cost a farthing daily, for maintenance and damage. That was on, an estimated basis-of a rat for every acre. 1 Hence tho.damage caused.by rats in England, and Wales amounted' to fifteen million pounds sterling a year. ;' / The Corporation of London recently addressed ft circular to shipowners. urging 'them,-in view.of tho risk of .tho dii6emination of plague by rats and fleas infected with the disease, to arrango for the destruction of all such, vermin on board the vessels under their control arriving iii the port from or touching at ports infected with plague. Tho most efficient way of destroying rats is by pumping sulphur dioxido gas into the vessels when empty, and tho Corporation is prepared efficiently to fumigate vessels in that way: In November. last, in vessels and docks, 483 i rats wero destroyed, making in all GJ5,G53 sirico February, 1001. ■ . ■ ; !