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A NEW HISTORY OF 



twenty hours, every louse of them had either died 

 or dropped off ; — proof sufficient, that their change 

 of locality had been fatal to them ; and that a 

 turkey's louse is not intended by nature to thrive, 

 or to exist on the person of human beings. 



Now, on the other hand, we hear of animals, 

 so constructed, and of such a pliable temperament, 

 that neither change of food, nor of climate appear 

 to have any deteriorating effect upon them. I may 

 here introduce the Hanoverian or Norway rat, as 

 a genuine and undoubted specimen. It can thrive 

 amazingly, either in the pig-stye or in the palace. 

 I have known it to gnaw away the protruding angle 

 of one of our old blue and red burnt bricks, 

 (nearly as hard as iron itself,) which happened 

 to be in the way of a proposed run ; — and I have 

 at times, observed it in localities apparently inac- 

 cessible to things of flesh and blood. Add to this, 

 it can swim like a fish. 



We have a phenomenon here just now, that 

 really ought to be recorded, notwithstanding my 

 repugnance to this greedy little beast. 



Almost every part of the country, teems with 

 Hanoverian rats ; and we read in the newspapers, 

 that a similar plague has appeared in some parts 

 of France. This rat as everybody well knows, 

 maintains itself on plunder. No prog,— no Hano- 



