Switzerland 
In Switzerland, the Section of Hygiene of the League of Nations, 
which is compiling information on diseases throughout the world, has re- 
cently completed a study of typhus fever, a disease carried by fleas, mites, 
and Vice infesting! rats. ; 
ePEnee 
Paris has been host to the International Rat Conferences, of which 
two have been held, one in 1928 and the other im 1961. “The purpose of the 
conterences was to arouse a world-wide active interest in rat control. Rep- 
resentatives from the leading countries met on these two occasions and heard 
the best authorities discuss the subject. The speeches and reports of these 
conferences have been;jpublished in French, and interested persons will 
find in them many valuable contributions to the solution of the rat problem. 
Unfortunately, neither conference resulted in any definite action 
toward world-wide rat control. Eoth contributed much educationally, how- 
ever, and were useful in the exchange of ideas, but that is all. Gabriel 
Petit, secretary of the conference, planned another along different. lines 
for 1936, but he railed to cbtain the necessary financiel support. 
France has no national law for the destruction of,rats. A commission, 
however, made a study in 1920 of methods for control and recommended a boun- 
ty of 25 -centimes (then about 4.8 cents) a rat. - This was-in effeet from 
september 1920 to July. 1921, and resulted in the destruction of 395,000 rats 
at a cost of 400,000 francs, or about one franc (then about 19.3 cents) 
each. When it was realized, however, that the number killed did not total 
more than 20 to 30: percent of the several million rats in Paris, the bounty 
was discontinued. Prof. Petit has estimated that there are 10,000,000 rats 
in Paris. He favors control legislation but considers it as sometimes 
difficult to enforce. Regarding commercial extermination, Prof. Petit be- 
lieves that charges by operators are too low to assure satisfactory results. 
A new kind of red-squill powder, known as "stabilactivated red-squill," 
has been produced in France from Algerian bulbs. The manufacturing firms 
Claim that it: has a high toxicity and will not harden or deteriorate even 
when stored in open sacks. Every lot is tested on large gray rats. This 
product is sold in France, Germany, and Holland, and plans are being made 
to distribute it in the United States. 
METHODS IN AMERICA 
The Bureau of Biological Survey has been entrusted with responsibil- 
ities in rat control on a Nation-wide scale by means of research, education, 
demonstration, and cooperation as a means of reducing waste in field crops: 
and stored food products. Congress has made annual appropriations to this 
Bureau to conduct rodent-control work on a broad basis. No laws making 
the destruction of rats compulsory have been enacted. 
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