THE RABBIT-PLAGUE IN AUSTRALIA. 91 



years, and incalculable damage to sheep-farms and crops. We 

 remarked that during the years 1884, 1885, 1886, the Govern- 

 ment had expended in the extirpation of Rabbits in Victoria 

 about £'30,000, chiefly by poisoning with phosphorized oats and 

 wheat, arsenic in bran and chaff, and bisulphide of carbon, and 

 by paying 3d. a dozen on all skins or scalps of Babbits produced 

 to the agents. In this way, at least 157,000 dozen were brought 

 in (equal to 1,884,000 scalps and skins) and paid for in two years. 



In New South Wales the sum voted by Parliament in 1886 

 for the destruction of Rabbits was £74,000, and in South 

 Australia £30,000. The area infested in Victoria was stated to 

 be about 20,000,000 acres, more or less ; and the estimated loss 

 during ten years incurred by the destruction and abandonment of 

 sheep-runs, consequent loss of wool, skins, and other profits 

 arising from this source, was set down by Mr. Morgan, the 

 United States Consul-General at Melbourne, Victoria, at some- 

 thing like £3,000,000 sterling. 



It was under these circumstances that the Government of 

 New South Wales was induced, in August, 1887, to offer a reward 

 of £25,000 for a satisfactory method of destroying Rabbits 

 wholesale, provided the method were new and effective, and at the 

 same time perfectly harmless to domestic animals. It was this 

 offer which induced M. Pasteur to make the experiments which 

 we have already described (Zool. 1888, pp. 326-327), and eventu- 

 ally to claim the reward, if allowed to apply his method in his 

 own way, through a properly instructed agent. 



We need not here refer to the Rabbit-pest in New Zealand, as 

 to which we have already furnished statistics (Zool. 1888, p. 325), 

 and a report on the remedial methods adopted in that country 

 (Zool. 1889, pp. 323-334). Our concern at present is only with 

 the question whether M. Pasteur's method was ever adopted and 

 carried out in Australia ; if so, with what measure of success ; if 

 not, why not. 



We believe it to be a fact that M. Pasteur, having satisfied 

 himself by experiment in a Rabbit warren near Rheims that he 

 could produce a fatal epidemic amongst Rabbits by inoculating 

 them with so-called "chicken cholera" (which he communicated 

 by cultivating the microbes producing it and introducing them 

 amongst the vegetable food given to the Rabbits), announced to 

 the Government of New South Wales that he was ready and 



