i 



Photograph from U. S. Public Health Service 

 FEEA HUNTING BY THE PLAGUE ERADICATORS 



To determine the season of the greatest plague danger, the officials of the U. S. Public 

 Health Service carefully examine a large number of the rats caught. In this picture a dead 

 rat is being combed to discover the number and variety of fleas on its coat, the insects having 

 first been killed by chloroform. These data are compiled and plotted as a curve of '"flea 

 incidents." showing graphically the season of greatest danger. 



more than they eat. One of the last 

 plague-stricken rats found by the Health 

 Service officers in San Francisco was hid- 

 den in a sack of peanuts on the third 

 floor of a warehouse. 



In 1898 a large packing-house in Chi- 

 cago had 3,360 hams destroyed by rats. 

 They are also known to attack living ani- 

 mals, and fat pigs have died as a result 

 of having holes eaten in them. They oc- 

 casionally gnaw the hoofs of horses until 



they bleed, and Carl Hagenback was 

 obliged to kill three young elephants ow- 

 ing to incurable wounds made on their 

 feet by rats. When confined in cages the 

 larger rats commonly kill and devour the 

 smaller and weaker ones. 



A large department store in Washing- 

 ton at one time lost as high as $30 a night 

 in damaged goods, and a hotel in the 

 same city averaged a loss of $75 a month 

 in damaged linen. One merchant in this 



