238 



In Tamatave, Madagascar, and other ports of that island no efforts 

 were being made to exterminate rats, and the American consul 

 reported that there were no municipal or colonial laws or regulations 

 directing such action. 



RAT EXTERMINATION IN CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA. 



In a report dated January 20, 1909, Dr. A. J. Gregory, medical 

 officer of health for the colony, states that at present no persons are 

 solely employed on rat catching, but the sanitary staff is required to 

 take all possible measures to reduce the rodent population. By the 

 use of bird lime a very large number of rats have from time to time 

 been destroyed. Doctor Gregory also refers to experiments made to 

 determine the value of tar and funnels placed on ropes to prevent the 

 access of rats to ships. The experiments were made to simulate 

 actual conditions that would prevail at ships lying at docks. It was 

 found that thickly coating a rope with fresh tar had not the slightest 

 deterrent effect on rats passing along. Funnels of a less diameter 

 than 20 inches were equally unsuccessful, and it was thought the 

 experiments proved the fallacy of trusting to tarred ropes or to disks 

 of a workable diameter being able to prevent rats from migrating in 

 either direction between shipping and shore. 



RAT EXTERMINATION IN ALEXANDRIA AND CAIRO, EGYPT. 



In Alexandria, Consul D. R. Burch stated that measures for the 

 extermination of rats were practiced; that the cost of disinfection 

 was defrayed by the municipality, which also supplied rat traps and 

 poison. 



In Cairo rat destruction was being practiced, but it was stated that 

 the results could not be described as encouraging. 



EXTERMINATION OF RATS IN THE PORT OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 



Consul-General E. H. Ozmun, at Constantinople, states that while no 

 special measures have been taken to exterminate rats in that city, the 

 sanitary administration of the Ottoman Empire has provided measures 

 for the destruction of rats and mice on all vessels arriving from places 

 contaminated with plague, and he has furnished the following copy 

 of instructions concerning vessels which have or have not undergone 

 disinfection in view of destroying rats and mice on board : 



ARTICLE 1. Vessels coming from places contaminated with plague and which have 

 not been disinfected either in the port of departure or in an intermediary port during 

 voyage, for the destruction of rats and mice on board, according to the regulations of 

 the superior council of health, shall undergo their disinfection in the lazaretto while 

 finishing their quarantine. 



ART. 2. Vessels coming from places contaminated with plague provided with a cer- 

 tificate stating that the forementioned disinfection has been undergone may, after 

 their admission, work in the port but without landing on the quay. 



