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any premises in a short time. Airedales can be trained to kill 

 both cats and rats. Cats are preferred, however, by most people, 

 particularly by the poor, because they may be had for the asking, 

 or without asking, cost little or nothing to keep, care for them- 

 selves, hunt without aid, usually will not desert their home when 

 given liberty, and make pretty and pleasing pets. Personally I 

 prefer ratproofing and traps, but there are conditions under which 

 cats or dogs and ferrets may be useful. 



IS THE CAT A DISSEMINATOR OF DISEASE? 



It has been regarded as a possibility that the germs of certain 

 diseases may be carried in the mail and that the recipients of 

 such mail may be infected. How much greater might be the 

 chances of infection from the household pet going from the sick 

 room to other rooms or dwellings I 



]\Jany writers on the cat include a long list of diseases to which 

 the animal is subject, some of which are known to be deadly and 

 contagious. Therefore, the questionnaire sent out from the office 

 of the iMassachusetts State Board of Agriculture contained the 

 following question: — 



Do you know of cases of contagious diseases carried to human beings by 

 cats? 



There were 222 negative replies and the rather surprising 

 number of 67 aflBrmatives, reporting 17 diseases apparently 

 transmitted by cats. The number of cases reported is much 

 larger than this, as several correspondents noted more than one 

 case. A majority of the physicians replying cited cases of in- 

 fectious diseases transmitted by cats. This led to an investiga- 

 tion which shows that the cat is a rather neglected factor in 

 sanitary science. Some physicians insist that cats shall be ban- 

 ished from the sick room or strictly quarantined, but their pres- 

 ence there is not generally considered dangerous. 



Some sixty pages of evidence regarding the transmission of 

 infection from cats to man was collected, mostly from medical 

 sources. This to the layman looked convincing, but as much of 

 it was of the character denominated by the courts as circum- 

 stantial, it was first somewhat condensed and then submitted 

 to an authority on preventive medicine, who at once disposed of 

 some of it as untrustworthy and regarded much of it as based 

 on speculation, and as unconvincing to the careful scientific 

 investigator. 



