CHAPTER IV. 

 METHODS OF DESTRUCTION. 



The destructiou of rabbits Las been so carefully iuvestigated iu 

 Australia tLat it may be well to refer briefly to the couclusious arrived 

 at by the Royal Commission which was aj^pointed to inquire into 

 schemes for the extermination of rabbits in Australasia. In a procld,- 

 matiou dated August 31, 1887, the government of New South Wales 

 offered a reward of £25,000 for the effectual extermination of rabbits 

 by any method or process not previously known in the colony, but three 

 years later a report was made that "after prolonged and careful study 

 of all the proposals which have been submitted, the commission finds 

 that no scheme has been propounded for the extermination of rabbits 

 which complies with the terms of the proclamation.'"' 



INOCULATION. 



The question of introducing infectious diseases was also carefully 

 considered, but while the commission "found no evidence to warrant 

 the belief that any known disease can be so employed as to exterminate 

 rabbits," it suggested that many diseases would ])robably be found 

 useful auxiliaries in keeping the rabbit plague within manageable 

 proportions.^ 



The success of disease as a means of destruction depends on two 

 conditions: (1) It must be fatal to the rabbits; (!') it nuist not injure 

 man or domesticated animals. The Australian experiments were juainly 

 couflned to the effects of (1) chicken cholera, (2) the so-called ^Tin- 

 tinallogy disease,' (3) diseases caused by the bladder worm {Camii- 

 rus), and (4) by rabbit scab {tiarcoptes cunieuli). It Avas found that 

 while the rabbits were easily killed by putting microbes of chicken 

 cholera iu their food the disease did not spread freely from infected to 

 healthy animals. The Tintinallogy disease takes its name from a sta- 

 tion on the east bank of the Darling River near IMenindie, New South 

 Wales, where a peculiar affection was noticed among the rabbits iu 

 September 1887. The principal symptoms are erection of the fur, begiu- 



'New South Wales Roy. Comm. Inquiry Exterm. Rabbits iu Austral iisia, Fiual 

 Report, 1890, p. 11. 

 2L. c, p. 3. 

 36 



