26 



when rats become so numerous as to disturb their sleep and 

 destroy their property. Professor Lantz speaks of an entire 

 block of houses which remained untenanted for months because 

 they were rat infested, and the owners lost yearly $2,000 in 

 rent. I have known cases where tenants have left homes for 

 this reason. The keeping of rats in city or country is extremely 

 expensive from all points of view. 



All the above indictment of the rat refers only to the prop- 

 erty that it destroys, and does not take into consideration its 

 effect on the public health. It remains now to consider how 

 it menaces not only man's property, but his health and his 

 very life. 



THE RAT MENACE TO HUMAN LIFE AND THE PUBLIC 



HEALTH. 



Many accounts have been published of rats attacking human 

 beings. A great number of such tales might be collected, but 

 it would serve no good purpose. The old story of Bishop 

 Hatto, who shut himself up in a stone tower to avoid the 

 swarming rats that later found an entrance and devoured him, 

 is perhaps one of the earliest of these tales. 



There are many narratives in print regarding the death of 

 elderly, infirm or intoxicated persons, and prisoners in dun- 

 geons, who were supposed to have been killed and partially 

 devoured by rats; also tales of sleepers, especially infants, 

 attacked by them and seriously injured or killed. Naturalists 

 add to these tales. Buflfon says that dying persons, prisoners 

 and children in the cradle have been gnawed by rats". Water- 

 ton tells of a woman who was bitten on the shoulder while 

 asleep. Jardine speaks of brown rats attacking people and 

 mutilating infants. Buckland tells of a man attacked by rats, 

 an infant killed by them, and the corpse of a pauper terribly 

 mutilated by them in the morgue. Rodwell tells of children in 

 the cradle having fingers eaten, toes, faces and necks lacerated, 

 etc., some of whom died, apparently from the effects of such 

 mutilation or from infection.^ Newspaper reporters make the 

 most of any occurrence of this nature, though usually it may 

 have little foundation in fact. While it is true that rats will 



» Rodwell, James, The Rat, 1858, pp. 52-57. 



