ANTIMOSQUITO LAWS 269 



Again, the Report adds : 



Fleas shun the sunlight and the air. They deposit their eggs 

 in rat-nests and the rats hatch them out with the warmth of their 

 bodies and then give the young fleas free transportation wherever 

 they go. Sulphur fumes will kill them, so that fumigation has 

 been found effective. 



Ordinances were passed by the JMayor and Council of San 

 Francisco : 



(a) Dealing with the collecting of garbage. 



(b) The suitable construction of all stables, which were 

 further sources of rat breeding. 



(c) The proper flooring of markets and yards and basements. 



(d) The keeping of animals and fowls. 



(e) The suppression of insanitary buildings and many other 

 matters. 



The Report makes some ugly comparisons between what has 

 been accomplished in San Francisco with what is occurring in 

 India to-day. It says in 1896 the plague reached Bombay and is 

 still there. It has spread all over India, and in the face of 

 modern medical skill it has claimed over five and a quarter 

 million victims. In 1904, the year the first epidemic was sup- 

 pressed in San Francisco, it killed over a million people in the 

 Indian Empire, destroying in a single week over 76,000 lives — a 

 number equal to the British Army in India ! 



