Rabbit Plague in Germany. 



ioi 



the troublesome rodents, and a report on the results of the 

 attempt has recently been issued.* 



The three substances experimented with were acetylene, 

 pictoline, and carbon bisulphide. 



Acetylene is easily and cheaply generated, but as it is 

 lighter than air it was found to be extremely difficult to 

 distribute throughout the rabbit burrows, and the results of 

 its use holdout no prospect of success. 



Pictoline is a mixture of sulphurous acid and carbonic 

 acid, and can be obtained in a liquid form in steel cylinders. 

 Besides having an injurious effect on human beings, there 

 are mechanical difficulties in dealing with it, and the results 

 of its use can only be characterised as moderately successful, 



Carbon bisulphide has long been used for insecticidal pur- 

 poses, e.g., in connection with phylloxera and granary 

 insects, but although it is extremely poisonous to the lower 

 animals, it has much less effect on man. It is sold as a 

 liquid, which rapidly evaporates when exposed to the air. 

 The great weight of the vapour as compared with air makes 

 it comparatively easy to avoid bringing the respiratory 

 organs into contact with it, while the same property enables 

 it to penetrate into the deeper recesses of a rabbit's burrow. 

 It is, however, very inflammable, and must therefore be 

 transported and used with great caution. Although its smell 

 is most repugnant to human beings, it does not seem 

 to be distasteful to rabbits, which consequently appear to 

 make no special effort to avoid it. 



The method of application that was found to work best in 

 practice was as follows : — -Eight or ten labourers, under 

 strict supervision,' and each provided with a supply of carbon 

 bisulphide in a spouted can, moved systematically over the 

 ground, placing pieces of tow, wood-wool, old sacking, hay, or 

 similar material, soaked in the liquid, in each rabbit burrow. 

 It was found that 20 ccm of the poison per burrow was necessary 

 but sufficient, and this is the quantity that a piece of sacking 

 about 15 inches square will absorb. When the material was 



* Beobachtungen und Erfahrungen ueber die Kaninchenplage und ihre Bekamp- 

 fung by Dr. A. Jacobi in Arb. aus der Biol. Abtheil. fiir Land und Forstwirthschafl 

 am Kaiserlichen Gesundsheitsamte, Band ii., Heft 4, 1902. 



