The Times. Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1921. RATS.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 687, 25 November 1921, Page 4

The Times. Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1921. RATS.

With an exceptionally virulent type of bubonic plague in Queensland and plague infected rodents in Sydney, many local bodies are talcing energetic measures to destroy rats. It may not be out of place therefore to give a little information about the rat family. There are two main species, she black rat which came from India or Persia and spread over Europe tn the 13th century, reaching' America with early ships. 'This species is not nearly so fierce as the brown or g>- oy rat, sometimes called the Norway l at, •which is the more common to-day. It is one of the strong beliefs of

scientific men that every species of plant or animal originated at but one spot on the earth’s surface and from there became distributed over the globe by varying agencies. The grey Ttyb hats been traced to China, where for centuries it revelled in the filth of the East, coming into Europe about 400 yeans after its black brother. It was in 1727 that enormous swarms of them were observed swimming across /the Volga and in a very short time they had spread over all Europe, killing and eating the less ferocious black rat, wherever they met him, Those who have read Darwin’s “Origin of Species’’ will remember that |this is one of the few instances cited where one species exterminated the other 1 . From Europe Ijike the cockroach, they have voyaged in ships to the farthest corners of the worM, so that to-day there is hardly an island free from their unwholesome presence. The menace of the rat is -well known. It does millions’ of pounds’ worth of damage yearly all over the world, and unless combined combative effort is undertaken, damage must increase. The rat has four .litters in the year, each litter comprising from four to a dozen, while the young rats themselves breed at- six months. The grey rat comes from China, where all the plagues come form and amongst other things is the most susceptible of all animals of bubonic and pnuemonic plague. Fleas from affected rats carry the germs to human beings, and it is impossible to be safe from bubonic plague in a rat-ridden town. Unchecked, they are dangerous in another way. There is the well-known instance of the slaughter-house in Paris, where, in one night rats picked to the bone, the carcases of 35 horses. In view of the undoubted menace of the rat it would be wisdom for the local authorities of the /district to consider concerted anti-rat measures.

«\Ve nothing extenuate, nor aught set down in malice.”