DIETETICS OF RATS. 
51 
which the day's sale had left. Thus before scavengers were 
introduced, they were of infinite benefit, though their ser- 
vices are now no longer required for that purpose. But 
about slaughter-houses, knackers' yards, victualling depots, 
drains, &c., their capacious stomachs are still of inestimable 
value to the population, by consuming all kinds of animal 
and vegetable refuse, that would otherwise be left in the 
drains to putrefy, to the great danger of the public health. 
As to animal substances, rats will gloat over and devour 
anything, from a delicate chop of house-fed lamb, or babies' 
fingers, down to a venison pasty, an old tortoise, or putrid 
carrion. But with respect to poultry and game of every 
description, nothing dead or alive, either on water or land, 
is safe from their rapacity. They will eat anything, from 
the delicate wing of a roast duckling, young partridge or 
pheasant, down to the scaly old leg of a centenarian swan. 
They will likewise consume all kinds of oils and fatty 
substances, from the purest olive oil to the refuse of whale's 
blubber. Nor will they object to soaps, either yellow or 
mottled, tallow fresh or stale ; nor are they very particular, 
in times of need, as to boots and shoes, or horses' harness. 
They will also consume all kinds of tuberous or bulbous 
roots, from a prize tulip to a mangel-wurzel. I have read 
also of their getting into churchyards, and eating our 
departed friends in their graves, as well as infesting the 
dead-houses on the Continent, where the bodies of strangers 
or casual dead are taken, for the purpose of being owned 
and claimed by their friends ; but frequently, in a single 
night, their faces and portions of their bodies have been 
so completely eaten away by rats, that all traces of 
identity were entirely obliterated. Thus it appears we are 
never secure, either dead or alive, from the liability of 
becoming food for rats. 
Notwithstanding the weak and contemptible appearance 
of the rat, it possesses peculiarities and properties which 
render it a far more formidable enemy to mankind than 
even those animals gifted with the greatest strength and 
most destructive dispositions, such as lions, tigers, wolves, 
wild cats, hogs, and hysenas. The midnight burglaries 
undetected by the police sink into in significance compared 
with the ravages of the rats of the London sewers, which 
E 2 
