Field. — On Bats and Plague. 443 



went for it a year or two after it was half-perished, and the 

 bones in a worse condition than a sheep's would have been 

 after ten or twenty years. This will account for the scarcity 

 of their remains. 



Art. LVI. — Rats and Plague. 



By H. C. Field. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 28th August, 1900. \ 



The publicity lately given to the fact that rats are subject to 

 bubonic plague, and disseminate the disease, reminds me that 

 during my colonial residence of close on half a century, and 

 mostly occupied in survey-work in the bush, I have noticed at 

 intervals of about seven years a great mortality amongst these 

 troublesome little animals. In such seasons dead ones lay 

 about in large numbers, particularly in the vicinity of water, 

 while many others were too weak to get out of the way of 

 ourselves and our dogs. The mortality always began about 

 the time when the peaches were ripe, and lasted till the 

 winter. I then thought it arose from the rats eating some 

 poisonous plant which was unusually plentiful in those sea- 

 sons, or possibly from some fungus of the nature of ergot 

 rendering their food unwholesome ; but I now think the 

 disease may possibly have been some form of plague. In 

 the same seasons there was a similar mortality among the 

 wild pigs, numbers of which died, while the rest became so 

 poor that we could hardly get one that was fit to eat. I 

 thought this might arise from the pigs eating the dead rats, as 

 I could not see anything to account for it otherwise ; but I 

 think these facts worth mentioning. 



The connection between rats and plague seems generally 

 regarded as a new discovery, but, curiously enough, we have 

 very old evidence to the contrary. When Sennacherib in- 

 vaded Egypt, about the year 850 B.C., he collected his 

 forces at Lachish (now Tel el Hes), a town in the extreme 

 south of Palestine, at which the routes from the various parts 

 of the Assyrian Empire converged. Some of these routes 

 crossed the Jordan at different points, while others crossed 

 what is now Arabia Deserta and came round the southern end 

 of the Dead Sea. When all were assembled Sennacherib 

 crossed the Egyptian frontier and laid siege to Pelusium, a 

 city situate beside the easternmost branch of the Nile. Here 

 a pestilence broke out among his troops, and in a short time 



