Rats and Plague. 
By ©.-B. Koss. 
The intimate connection that exists between plague and 
rats is a matter to which very little attention seems to have 
been paid in the Straits Settlements beyond the organised 
destruction of the animals on a small scale by the Municipal 
bodies of Singapore and Penang, for if any researches have taken 
place the result has not been made public. The question does 
not affect the Federated Malay States to quite the same extent, 
as its towns are not so directly connected with the birth-places 
of such epidemics as are those of the Colony. 
The matter has, however, excited considerable interest in 
India in the last few years and the Indian Museum has publish- 
ed the outcome of investigations, by Dr. W.C. Hossack of the 
Calcutta Plague Department and of Surgeon-Captain R. E. 
Lloyd of the Indian Marine Survey. * The Bombay Natural 
History Society deals with the subject in one of itsjournals! and 
Indian Municipalities, have also issued Plague Reports but is 
the publications of the India Museum that are noticed here. 
In a preliminary pamphlet Dr. Hossack gives some in- 
structions for collecting specimens of rats for study which could 
easily be improved on and follows these, for the benefit of the 
inexperienced observer, with “a succinct account of the rats of 
*W.C. Hossack, M D. Aids to the Identification of Rats con- 
nected with Plagne in India with suggestions as to the Collection of 
Specimens. Published by the Trustees of the Indian. Museum, 1907. 
Price 8 annas. An account of the Rats of Caleutta, Memoirs of the 
“Indian Museum, Vol. I, No. 1, Caleutta 1907. Price 1 rupee 8 annas 
-or with plates 5 rupees 8 annas. 
Captain R_ E. Lloyd, D. Se., I. M.S. The Races of Indian Rats 
Records of the Indian Museum Vol. If, Part 1. Calentta 1909 
Price 2 rupees. 
+ Captain Liston, I. M.S., Plague, Rats and Fleas, vol. XVI. p. 
253. 
R. A. Soc., No. 57, 1910, 
