BITTEN BY A RAT.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 215, 13 August 1887, Page 6

BITTEN BY A RAT.

Miss Alviuv Dklancy Hos,a^ ahe point of death in the Cottage Ho.^jiSaF, New London, United {States, suffering from bloodpoisoning. She arrived! au New London from the island of Pot k) fvreo on the brig Moraney, in oomp.mv wi!>h her mother ami sister. Her })hy.sician \\»©tild not then permit the girl to be ta-Jten to her home- in Boston, and she has keen i-rx the hospital since, attended by ii&r mother, sister,, and aunt. Her case is ron extiaordinary one. Seven weeks ago MUs Detancy was reclining in a summer hou->e on he-r aunt's plantation near Arroyo, Foito Rico, when she was afcfcacfosd by a rafc> which appeared to lb© mad, as ifc fiothed from the moutft and ke);t up a frightful squealing. The rat seized tho girVa clothes and "was tearing at them, when, with rare pvr-^enco of mind and more tlmn the average of -vvomaJily courage, Miss Delansy caught tiie loathsome animal by the back, dKigjffd him ofT her dress, a piiioe of which was in his toeth, and bhrev him to the- ground with force enough t«> kill him. Although naturally much e\-cited by tho uiipltasant encounter, Miss Dulancy appeared none the worse except for a slight scratch on the aim, whei'£> she \vat> bitten )>y the infuriated little animal. Bub that little scratch will probably prove f.ital. Inflammation a)>-j)©ai-ed in two or three days, and the poison was communicated thiough the wliole arteri-ii system. Tho o])inion of the patient's physician is that the rat had eaten of poison set among tho sugar-cane, which was infected by the animals, and that the girl was inoculated with this poison through the bite. The poison is also thought to bo tho cause of tho rabid behaviour of the animal, for the Porto Rica rats differ very slightly from our own rodents, and stories of suoh attacks as this one are as rare there as here.