730 THE SMALL-MAMMAL PROBLEM 
protection from the ravages of rats and mice. Our waterways, 
sewers, and drains formed highways for, and harboured, hordes 
of Common Rats, which made their way, chiefly by means of 
unprotected drain-pipes, into the basements of adjoining build- 
ings. In the towns, the underground kitchens, bakehouses, 
and other places in which human food was prepared, were 
regularly visited by droves of rats entering from the sewers 
and bringing filth and corruption into contact with the food 
of the citizens. Neither owner nor occupier of dilapidated 
rat-ridden property was under any obligation to repair and 
disinfest such premises; while many Local Authorities pro- 
vided secure quarters and nourishment for the rat population 
by permitting the formation of great mounds of refuse upon 
waste lands in the vicinity of towns and docks. In rural 
districts, stackyards and farm buildings of all kinds were 
allowed to be entirely without protection. Still worse, in the 
interests of intensive game preservation and poultry farming, 
to the great detriment of general agriculture, every creature 
that could possibly be supposed to be inimical to game or 
poultry was (and still is) treated as ‘‘vermin.” Summing up, 
we may say, that in 1914 we were negligently providing 
accommodation and nourishment for a vast rat and mouse 
population, although well aware that these rodents inflicted 
upon us a colossal annual financial loss and brought grave 
peril to the health of the community. In the towns, in order 
to keep the numbers of our guests in some control, we had 
to depend naturally upon the continuous employment of a great 
body of ratcatchers and a considerable annual expenditure 
upon the means of rat and mouse destruction. In rural 
districts we were no better off, for by allowing the countryside 
to he depleted of the natural enemies of rodents, the work of 
limiting the numbers of rats devolved to a large extent upon 
the gamekeeper and ratcatcher. 
Secondly, the abnormal conditions which ensued upon 
the outbreak of war greatly aggravated the position, evil as it 
was in the summer of 1914. The accommodation available 
for rats and mice grew rapidly with the establishment 
throughout the country of vast camps and stores, housed 
for the most part in buildings of a fragile and temporary 
a a ee ee ee 
