748 



THE NATURE BOOK 



ratbanes are about as effective as incan- 

 tations. Ratbanes, to be of any service, 

 must contain some dangerous poison 

 such as arsenic, strychnine, or cantharides. 

 It is questionable whether their use is 

 legal, and. in any case, it is extremely 



A BLACK RATTON. 



The closeness and smoothness of the fur, which has a Mreen metallic sheen, should be noticed, 

 also the large size of the ear and the great length of the tail. 



risky. Practically the only alternative we 

 have to an endeavour to restore Nature's 

 balance by natural means, is the employ- 

 ment of bacteria, and it is this method 

 which has been adopted by the Danish 

 Government. Several different forms of 

 virus are on the market, and it is naturally 

 claimed for all of them that they infect 

 Rats with a specific disease, which is 

 communicated from one Rat to another. 

 However careful the laboratory experiments 

 may have been, and however certain the 

 advertisers of these cultures of bacteria 

 may be of the safety and efficacy of their 

 employment, it is greatly to be hoped that 

 the Incorporated Society for the Destruc- 

 tion of Vermin wiU hold its zeal so tem- 

 pered by discretion as to await the 

 final result of the Danish experiments 

 before encouraging any but natural means 



of suppression in this country. No bac- 

 teriologist knows or can pretend to know 

 what the ultimate effect of spreading 

 disease among the forty million Rats, 

 to say nothing of the many times forty 

 million mice and meadow mice in this 



country, would 

 be. Presumably 

 a large per- 

 centage of the 

 rodents affected 

 would die ; pre- 

 sumably, too, a 

 certain per- 

 centage would 

 r e c o \- e r, and 

 j)ossibly be 

 rendered im- 

 mune. Efforts 

 would, of course, 

 be made to col- 

 lect and cre- 

 mate all the 

 corpses, but how 

 many w o u 1 d 

 actually be col- 

 lected, and how 

 m a n y w o u 1 d 

 putrefy unseen ? 

 The Brown Rat 

 would use his 

 last grain of 

 strength in 

 reaching cover. It is claimed for the 

 bacterial preparations on the market that 

 they are specific to the MuridcB. Is anv- 

 one bold enough to suggest that bacillus 

 typhi murium, or any other bacillus, has 

 been proved innocuous to any and every 

 form of life with which a sick Rat may 

 be brought in contact ? It is to be hoped 

 that the Incorporated Society for the 

 Destruction of Vermin will be content 

 for the present to devote its energies to 

 the protection of the furred and feathered 

 enemies of Rats. If the Danish Rats are 

 e.xterminated by the use of '• Ratin," the 

 Society will be able to appraise in a few 

 years' time the result of such extermina- 

 tion ; if " Ratin " does not exterminate 

 the Danish Rats, the Society will be at 

 least in a position to determine what it 

 does do. 



Douglas English. 



