EBDITORIAL GLEANINGS 239 
made that the house-fly is a principal factor in the dissemination of 
the epidemic of summer diarrhoea among infants. Probably many 
other diseases of men and domesticated animals of which little is 
known are similarly conveyed by vermin. 
Although the agency of vermin as disease conveyors has been 
suspected from the remotest antiquity, it is only of late years that it 
has received definite proof. As already mentioned, action has been 
taken/as regards mosquitoes, and now, owing to the recrudescence of 
plague and the proof that the rat is the main agent in diffusing it, 
action is being taken against this animal in various countries, as, for 
example, in Denmark, where a special law has been enacted with the 
view of destroying these rodents. The fly also is receiving attention ; 
in New York a Special Committee has just handed in its report, giving 
some very valuable suggestions as to the best way of dealing with the 
fly question. In this country reports have also been drawn up by 
the Public Health Committee of the London County Council and the 
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Although the Society for the 
Destruction of Vermin has decided to direct its earliest operations 
against the rat tribe, it contemplates in the future, as opportunities 
may arise, the initiation of destructive measures against mice, house- 
flies, and the other vermin mentioned herein. 
Apart from considerations of health, on economic grounds the 
destruction of the rat is much to be desired. The depredations of 
this animal are very costly. It has been computed that there are not 
less than thirty million rats in the United Kingdom at the present 
day, and that the loss through their incessant ravages amounts to 
some five million pounds yearly. Fields of corn are ofttimes seriously 
damaged; stores of meat, poultry, and cereals, both in warehouse 
and on shipboard, are heavily taxed; buildings are damaged; docks 
and wharves are overrun; and so serious have the depredations 
become in many quarters—notably the London Docks—that private 
proprietors have abandoned all hope of decreasing the plague of rats 
by individual efforts. The cost of the repressive measures taken 
against rats alone in London now exceeds ten thousand pounds 
a year. 
The Society for the Destruction of Vermin, which is in process of 
incorporation under Board of Trade regulations as a public associa- 
tion not formed for the object of making profit, will collect informa- 
tion from all sources of the birth, breeding, distribution, and life- 
history of noxious vermin. It will pay especial attention to the part 
played by vermin in disease causation. Disseminate as widely as 
