From a painting by Poussin. Photograph from Boelter 

 ILLUSTRATING THE "BLACK DEATH" PLAGUE, A RAT-SPREAD DISEASE DURING THE 

 MIDDLE AGES IN EUROPE, WHICH COST 25,000,000 LIVES (SEE PAGE 13) 



dead rats were found, and the fumiga- 

 tion of the steamship Minnehaha at Lon- 

 don yielded a bag of 1,700. In eight 

 years 572,600 were killed on the London 

 docks, including those on the ships. 



As reported to Parliament by the Fam- 

 ine Commission, in 1881, a rat plague ex- 

 isted in southern Deccan and the Mah- 

 ratta districts of India. Bounties were 

 paid for destruction of rats and more 

 than 12,000,000 were killed. On many 

 occasions, both on the mainland as well 

 as on islands, the unlimited increase of 

 rats has finally led to the almost total 

 loss of crops and other food supplies and 

 resulting famines. 



One of the most amazing accounts of 

 the abundance of these animals comes 

 from the Island of South Georgia, on 

 die border of the Antarctic east of Cape 

 Horn. For some years summer whaling 

 operations have been conducted at this 

 island and great numbers of whale car- 

 casses, after being stripped of the blub- 

 ber, have drifted ashore. The short cool 



summers and long cold winters of this 

 region preserve the bodies from rapid 

 decay and the rats which have landed 

 from the ships find there a never-ending 

 surplus of meat. 



As a consequence they have multiplied 

 until they now exist literally by millions. 

 They make their nests in the grass and 

 peat back from the shore and swarm 

 along well-worn roads they have made 

 on the mountain sides. 



THEY MARCH LIKE ARMIES 



The ready adaptability of rats to their 

 surroundings is one of the qualities which 

 has enabled them to conquer the world. 

 On the approach of warm weather in 

 summer large numbers of them leave 

 buildings and resort to fields on farms, 

 or to the outskirts of the towns, where 

 the growing vegetation, particularly cul- 

 tivated plants, affords them an abundant 

 food supply until the approach of winter. 

 At the beginning of cold weather they 

 return again to the shelter of buildings, 



