POISONOUS EFFECTS OF RAT-BITES 55 



a rat in a trap, incautiously put his hand on the 

 spring in order to release it, without having taken 

 the precaution to first despatch it, the result being 

 that the rat bit him severely. He became seriously 

 ill, and for many weeks was in a most critical 

 condition. He happened to be a man of some- 

 what intemperate habits, and this fact doubtless 

 aggravated the evil effects of the poison. In the 

 same parish another farmer, a particularly temperate 

 man, and apparently possessed of an iron consti- 

 tution, when ferreting for rabbits, put his hand 

 into a hole for the purpose of dragging out a 

 rabbit, and was severely bitten by a rat. For 

 a time his life was despaired of, and it was fully 

 two years before he recovered his health ; indeed, 

 he has never completely done so. 



As I have before remarked, it is very much to 

 be doubted if, when the original English rat, the 

 black variety, was exterminated by the present 

 breed, the brown, we did not suffer considerably 

 by the exchange. As may be supposed, from 

 the fact of the brown rat having exterminated 

 its predecessor, the former is the more powerful 

 and larger of the two and, it may be added, far 

 less lovable, for the black rat was a really 

 handsome animal, especially when compared with 

 the present reptilious-looking quadruped and, 

 being larger and more powerful, the brown rat is 

 capable of more harm. I can only remember 

 having once seen a specimen of the black rat, and 

 that was kept in confinement. I very much doubt 



