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proper authorities of all matters a remedy of which is, in public interest, considered 

 necessary, among them rat and mice nuisances in the several districts of the city. Of 

 late the board of health has also begun to lay rat poison in houses in the old parts of 

 the city, employing the house-to-house method, and rat poison is laid, from time to 

 time in sewers and other underground canals where rats usually congregate in large 

 numbers. 



As the laying of rat poison at or in the vicinity of places where domestic animals are 

 kept is dangerous to the latter, the Hamburg board of health has only shortly ago 

 caused a small gas generator to be constructed, similar to that on the Desinfektor. The 

 apparatus can easily be removed from one place to another, and is chiefly to be used 

 on yards or unimproved lots, public parks, zoological gardens, etc., where rats live 

 under the ground. In fumigating such a rat nest, all holes leading out of it are 

 closed with earth, except two. The hose of the gas apparatus is introduced into one 

 of the holes and gas insufflated. The majority of rats in the hole are dead before being 

 able to reach the fresh air. Those succeeding in doing so, by getting out of the one 

 open hole, are so dizzy that they can easily be killed with a club. Only a few experi- 

 ments have so far been made with this apparatus, but the same promises good success. 



In Bremen, according to the consul, all disinfection of vessels and 

 their cargoes was done with sulphur dioxide by means of a Clayton 

 apparatus, and vessels equipped with this apparatus, and those hav- 

 ing physicians aboard, had the advantage of being able to start disin- 

 fection twenty-four hours before arrival at port, this process having 

 been recognized as sufficient compliance with the quarantine laws of 

 Germany. 



MEASURES AGAINST RATS AT THE PORT OF ROTTERDAM. 



In the report from Consul-General S. Listoe it was stated that the 

 extermination of rats had not been officially undertaken by the 

 authorities of Rotterdam, either in the port or aboard incoming ships. 

 The question had been investigated, however, and the harbor master 

 had strongly advised the installation of a fumigating machine, which 

 would be installed on one of the numerous river police boats. Ship 

 owners had, for their own protection, caused their ships to be occa- 

 sionally fumigated, and two of the well-known lines had fitted out 

 some of their steamers with fumigating apparatus. 



DESTRUCTION OF RATS AT ANTWERP, BELGIUM. 



Consul-General H. W. Diedrich stated that no official action had 

 been taken in the port of Antwerp for the extermination of rats, 

 but that every vessel entering the port had to pass the sanitary sta- 

 tion at Doel, and there was authority to hold up any suspected vessel 

 and to insist on fumigation for the destruction of rats. 



DESTRUCTION OF RATS IN DENMARK. 



As a result of the agitation started in 1898, the following law was 

 passed and signed by the King of Denmark on March 22, 1907: 



1 . When an association constituted for the purpose of effecting the systematic de- 

 struction of rats has proved to the satisfaction of the minister of the interior that it is 

 in a position to expend on the furtherance of its objects, within a period of three 

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