THE PEST OF RATS 21 



made in favor of any "dogge of accompte." Such 

 a one was allowed to be kept if "kenelled or tied 

 up or led in a lease." 



As often happens, a fact was clearly per- 

 ceived and acted upon beneficially long before 

 the philosophy of it was comprehended. 



Rats responsible for the plague. It was 

 not until the very end of the last century 

 scarcely a dozen years ago, that the suspected 

 truth of the real nature of the plague was dis- 

 covered through scientific studies of the disease 

 which then appeared in a most threatening 

 form in India. It was determined that of the 

 several phases of plague the most common is 

 that which produces swellings or "buboes" 

 on the body of the victim, and hence is called 

 bubonic plague. This is rarely communicated 

 direct from man to man, but through the me- 

 dium of insects which suck the patient's blood 

 and then, filled with the diseased blood in which 

 are floating the deadly bacilli (Bacillus pestis) 

 which produce the disturbance, pierce the skin 

 of some other creature and leave more or less 

 of these plague-germs in the puncture. 



Any blood-sucking bug, as, for example, the 



