HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



73 



THE OKIGIN OF GEEAT FIKES EEOM A NATUEAL 



HISTOEY POINT. 



a recent meeting of the 

 Lower Mosley-sti-eet 

 Natural History So- 

 ciety, I submitted a 

 piece of leaden water- 

 pipe, sent to me by 

 Captain Drew, who re- 

 ceived it from Mrs. 

 Bakewell, St, Mary's Gate, in 

 January last. It appears, Mrs. 

 Bakewell's kitchen in St. Mary's 

 Gate is infested with rats : they 

 have, on several occasions, bit- 

 ten through the water-pipe and 

 flooded the place. The pipe has 

 been twice bitten through, and 

 the hole soldered up. The 

 rats, no doubt, being thirsty, 

 bit through the pipe to allay it. 

 Two instances have occurred at Phillips's ware- 

 liouse, Church-street; one in 1851, the other in 

 1856: in both cases the rats gnawed through a 

 leaden gas-main-pipe a few inches above the floor. 

 Other similar instances have occurred of rats 

 gnawing a gas in mistake for a water-pipe : it has 

 been thought that they heard the water bubbling 

 in the gas-pipe, and have not found their mistake 

 until tliey had penetrated the pipe. Phillips's 

 warehouse was on both occasions damaged by fire 

 through some of the employes seeking for the 

 escaping gas with a light. 



A fireman, in the performance of his duty, often 

 meets with many curious and interesting instances 

 of causes of fires, a few of which I will give, which 

 you may, perhaps, think worth wtile to find a corner 

 for in your very interesting Gossip on natural 

 history, &c. 



I have attended and traced several instances of 

 fires occurring through rats and mice gnawing 

 lucifer-matclies. Matches are now dipped in 

 paraffin wax instead of sulphur, as before ; the rats 

 or mice have carried them under the floor for the 

 No. 112. 



purpose of gnawing off the wax ; in doing so their 

 teeth have come in contact with the phosphorus at 

 the ends, and so fired them. In 185G I attended a 

 fire at the Sultan's Palace at Scutari, Asia Minor. 

 After the fire, I gathered from under the flooring 

 a quantity they had been gnawing. Some years 

 ago a fire occurred in London, caused through a 

 jackdaw getting at a box of lucifers, and pecking 

 them until it set them on fire. 



Pires have occurred through rats and mice con- 

 veying under the flooring-boards oily and fatty 

 rags, which have afterwards spontaneously ignited. 

 This is rather a common cause of fires in cotton- 

 mills. 



The following is an extract from the Journal of 

 the United Service Institution, Whitehall-yard, 

 London, No. 52, for 1868 : " One of the presents 

 sent to the Museum of this Institution is a rat's 

 nest and young. The nest was set on fire by a 

 lucifer-match, ignited by the old rat as she worked 

 it into her nest. Lieutenant A. H. Gilmore, E,.N., 

 states a fire occurred on board Her Majesty's ship 

 Revenge from a similar cause." 



Cats and dogs have caused fires in various ways ; 

 such as upsetting explosive and inflammable things 

 into fires and lights, also through lying inside 

 fenders and under fireplaces. Hot coals have 

 fallen and adhered to their backs, which caused 

 til em to beat a hasty retreat, no doubt being 

 anxious to get rid of the annoyance as soon as 

 possible. They have sometimes succeeded by 

 rolling or rubbing on carpets, curtains, beds, straw, 

 shavings, and other inflammable things. The last 

 instance I recollect occurred at a baker's shop in 

 Albion-street, Gaythorn. A dog was lying under 

 an oven fire, a piece of chip fell from the fire on 

 to his back ; he immediately ran to some shavings, 

 rolled upon them, at the same time setting them 

 on fire before the eyes of his master. In 1863, 

 three distinct fires were caused in one room of a 

 gentleman's house inCanonbury, Islington, through 

 a cat lying inside the fender, when some hot ashes 



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