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officer of the board of health is posted on board constantly to watch the discharging 

 of the cargo. All dead rats found are immediately delivered to the Hygienic Institute; 

 and if the latter's bacteriological examinations give reason to suspect plague, the dis- 

 charging is immediately discontinued and communication with the shore interrupted. 

 The vessel's crew and discharging gangs are placed under medical observation for a 

 period of five days, the cargo compartments are treated with generator gas, so as to 

 exterminate all rats, and, after the quarantine has been discontinued and the cargo 

 discharged, all compartments are carefully disinfected. For the purpose of treating 

 infected ships by means of generator gas the Hamburg government owns a special 

 disinfection ship, called the Desinfektor, which will be described later. 



In order to exterminate rats on ships frequenting the port of Hamburg the master 

 of every vessel arriving here receives the following instructions from a representative 

 of the health officer of the port: 



He shall cause rat poison to be laid and fumigate holds by means of sulphur and 

 charcoal as soon as the cargo has been discharged, not less than 10 kilos (22 pounds) 

 of sulphur and 20 kilos (44 pounds) of charcoal to be used for a room of 1,000 cubic 

 meters (1,308 cubic yards). Such rooms must be kept closed at least ten hours. On 

 ships arriving from ports infected with plague, rat poison is laid, free of charge, immedi- 

 ately upon arrival, by an employee of the municipal disinfection establishment, at 

 all places within reach. On all other ships the laying of rat poison is done by private 

 persons whose charges are payable by the vessel's master or owner. 



The disinfectors employed by the State of Hamburg use principally a rat poison 

 called "Rattengiftspeise," consisting chiefly of phosphorus and squills. Private 

 rat killers may choose any other material, but from time to time samples of such poisons 

 as are laid out on ships are taken by order of the harbor surgeon, and rats kept in the 

 public laboratories are fed with them, to enable a control as to the effectiveness of the 

 poison. 



Under special circumstances the harbor surgeon is authorized to waive the require- 

 ment of fumigation. 



Killed rats are not permitted to be thrown overboard, but must be delivered to the 

 nearest police station, which causes their cremation. 



On river barges rat poison is laid by official disinfectors every three months. 



Finally there is rat poison laid, from time to time, in warehouses, cargo sheds, and 

 trade establishments in the harbor, partly by official disinfectors and partly by private 

 rat killers, which is regularly controlled by the harbor surgeon, a special officer of his 

 department being engaged for such purpose. 



The ship called the Desinfektor, owned by the government of Hamburg for the 

 purpose of disinfecting ships arriving from infected ports and for the extermination 

 of plague infected rats, is a steamer equipped with a generator gas apparatus and other 

 disinfecting facilities. The method of using generator gas has been chosen for reasons 

 which are described in a booklet issued some time ago by the local board of health 

 on this subject. 



In respect to the extermination of rats in Hamburg, aside from the 

 system adopted for ships and in the harbor, the consul-general states 

 that efforts to this end are being successfully carried out by official 

 disinfectors by order of the board of health, and he refers to the pro- 

 cedures as follows: 



If it becomes known to the board of health that in any locality or group of buildings 

 there are rats in large quantities, rat poison is immediately laid. For such purpose 

 the above-mentioned Jungclaussen's preparation is almost exclusively used. The 

 several local citizens' associations (Biirgervereine), at the meetings of which all topics 

 of interest are discussed, contribute largely to the bringing to the knowledge of the 



