DIETETICS OF RATS. 
57 
one kettle after anotlier, till they scalded all the rats to death ; 
and upon turning them out, it is said, there were hundreds. 
Now whether the pieman, like the young woman of Paris, 
died from fright, and was gnawed before he was cold, or 
whether the rats attacked him in a body and killed him, will 
i^emain to the end a mystery. 
\ There lived lately in Clerkenwell a woman aged 63, of 
rather eccentric habits. Not having been seen for some days 
by her neighbours, suspicion was aroused, and upon her room 
being entered, her lifeless and putrefied corpse was dis- 
covered lying in the middle of the apartment ; the face, 
neck, and other parts of the unfortunate woman's person 
having been so awfully mutilated by rats as to be hardly 
recognizable. 
From many striking instances, it appears very clear that 
rats are creatures of impulse, for frequently they will pass by 
a thing without caring for, or even noticing it, when at 
another time they will seize upon it with the most ferocious 
daring, and devour it with avidity ; nor are they very par- 
ticular, in the absence of anything tender, at trying their 
teeth with something tough. For instance, the author of 
" Gleanings of Natural History " gives an account of an old 
tortoise. But before I relate this circumstance I may as 
well give an account of the rats of the Cape of Good Hope. 
A gentleman residing in London, wrote to the " Gentle- 
man's Magazine " to the following effect : — In the course 
of his life, public service had carried him several times to 
the Cape of Good Hope, where it struck him as a strange 
fancy in every family, to see a small land-tortoise in the 
inclosed yard, behind the offices of the house. For some 
time he looked upon the animal as a universal pet ; but at 
length he was undeceived, by being told that they were kept 
for the purpose of keeping away the rats, which would never 
approach any place where a land-tortoise was harboured." 
So much for the modesty of the Cape rats ; and I might 
say also the rats of Calcutta, for Mr. Jesse says, that, while 
on the tortoise, he may as well mention that Captain Gooch 
informed him that when he was at Calcutta, he was told 
that a tortoise which had belonged to, and had been a great 
favourite of, Lord Clive, when he was Governor-General of 
India, was still living. He went to see it, and as no one seemed 
