241 



RAT DESTRUCTION IN BARCELONA, SPAIN. 



fT,^« ^'"*'®^°'^^ Vice-Consul-General Wm. Dawson, Jr., reported that 

 toe otiicials m charge of public health measures attached no really great 

 importance to the destruction of rats as an effective means of prevent- 

 ing the spread of plague. Several attempts, however, had been made 

 to kill rats, which invade Barcelona to an enormous extent. In his 

 report the vice-consul further stated that bacterial cultures known 

 as Tifus ratoso, and supposed to have given excellent results in 

 Forniosa, had been tried without appreciable results on wild .rats. 

 He further stated that wheat boiled in a 5 per cent solution of corro- 

 sive sublimate, dried in the air, and spread in sewers and other 

 places, had proved the most effective means of killing a few thousand 

 of them, but this practice had not been carried out to any great 

 extent nor for any length of time. 



RAT DESTRUCTION AT FRENCH PORTS. 



In Marseille the following was the practice as reported by the 

 director of the maritime health service at that port and forwarded 

 by Consul-General H. L. Washington: 



The obligatory destruction of rats in all French ports is enforced by virtue of a 

 decree dated May 4, 1906. This applies: (1) To all vessels arriving from a port 

 regarded as contaminated by plague or having only touched at such port. (2) To all 

 vessels having received in transshipment — that is to say, from ship to ship — mer- 

 chandise originating in a country deemed contaminated by plague. The destruc- 

 tion of these animals is carried out exclusively by means of apparatus whose efficacy 

 has been recognized by the Superior Council of Hygiene of France. 



The devices employed at Marseille are: 



(1) The "Marot," adopted June 19, 1905. This apparatus utilizes liquid sul- 

 phurous anhydrite, which is slackened, diluted in the air, and, subjected or not to 

 the action of the electric spark. The gas is introduced into the vessel by means of 

 a ventilator at a rate of from 25 to 30 meters per minute (82.02 to 98.42 feet). 



(2) The "Gauthier-Deglos," adopted February IS, 1907. This method requires 

 the combustion in an oven of a mixture of sulphur and coal dust. A ventilator 

 withdraws air from the vessel and causes it to pass over the mixture in combustion; 

 the gas thus produced is cooled and then introduced into the vessel. A third device, 

 known as the "Clayton," in use in some of the French ports, also operates from 

 time to time in Marseille on such vessels as are provided with it, but it does not exist 

 in the port itself. The principle of this device is based upon the combustion of sul- 

 phur, its transformation into sulphurous sulphuric gas, the cooling of the gases 

 leaving the oven, aspiration of the exterior air or the air in the holds of vessels, 

 and introduction into the holds by means of a powerful ventilator. 



With all three systems, the ships' holds are opened only after they have been in 

 operation for three hours. 



In Bordeaux, according to the consul, contracts had been entered 

 into between the Government and a private individual for the 

 extermination of rats on all ships coming from plague-infected ports, 

 the apparatus employed being that in use at Marseille. 



