736 THE SMALL-MAMMAL PROBLEM 



protection from the ravages of rats and mice. Our waterways, 

 sewers, and drains formed highways for, and harboured, hordes 

 of Common Rats, which made their way, chiefly by means of 

 unprotected drain-pipes, into the basements of adjoining build- 

 ings. In the towns, the underground kitchens, bakehouses, 

 and other places in which human food was prepared, were 

 regularly visited by droves of rats entering from the sewers 

 and bringing filth and corruption into contact with the food 

 of the citizens. Neither owner nor occupier of dilapidated 

 rat-ridden property was under any obligation to repair and 

 disinfest such premises ; while many Local Authorities pro- 

 vided secure quarters and nourishment for the rat population 

 by permitting the formation of great mounds of refuse upon 

 waste lands in the vicinity of towns and docks. In rural 

 districts, stackyards and farm buildings of all kinds were 

 allowed to be entirely without protection. Still worse, in the 

 interests of intensive game preservation and poultry farming, 

 to the great detriment of general agriculture, every creature 

 that could possibly be supposed to be inimical to game or 

 poultry was (and still is) treated as "vermin." Summing up, 

 we may say, that in 19 14 we were negligently providing 

 accommodation and nourishment for a vast rat and mouse 

 population, although well aware that these rodents inflicted 

 upon us a colossal annual financial loss and brought grave 

 peril to the health of the community. In the towns, in order 

 to keep the numbers of our guests in some control, we had 

 to depend naturally upon the continuous employment of a great 

 body of ratcatchers and a considerable annual expenditure 

 upon the means of rat and mouse destruction. In rural 

 districts we were no better off, for by allowing the countryside 

 to be depleted of the natural enemies of rodents, the work of 

 limiting the numbers of rats devolved to a large extent upon 

 the gamekeeper and ratcatcher. 



Secondly, the abnormal conditions which ensued upon 

 the outbreak of war greatly aggravated the position, evil as it 

 was in the summer of 1914. The accommodation available 

 for rats and mice grew rapidly with the establishment 

 throughout the country of vast camps and stores, housed 

 for the most part in buildings of a fragile and temporary 



