260 
THE RAT. 
cream was made into butter, and the skim-milk given to the 
calves and pigs ; and thus the whole were poisoned. 
I must also warn you against the use of tallow as an 
ointment. Some short time ago there appeared in the 
papers an account of a man whose death arose from putting 
j)oisoned tallow to a wound. We have also instances on record 
of rats being poisoned by candles. A watch-maker was once 
placed in a most unpleasant position through a rat. His wife 
had brought into the kitchen a pound of candles, and placed 
them on the table where she had been sitting. But beino: 
called up stairs to answer some one, she was delayed in con- 
versation. When her husband came home they went down 
stairs; and as the candle was burning in the socket he pro- 
posed to light another. She told him there v/as a pound on the 
table ; but, on looking, no candles were to be found. She 
was certain she had brought down a pound only a few 
minutes before. He thought she must be mistaken ; but 
ahe insisted on the fact. At length an old charwoman who 
used to clean and puddle about the place was summoned, 
and questioned as to the candles. She felt indignant, and 
stoutly denied all knowledge of them. The result was, that 
the poor old woman was dismissed from their service. How- 
ever, in about ten days, the place began to smell most 
unpleasantly. Then it got from bad to worse, till the place 
fairly stank again. At last he insisted that there must be 
some dead animal, or something of the sort, under the floor- 
ing. The result was, he pulled up some of the boards, and 
there lay the wicks of all the candles ; and under the hearth- 
stone they found a great putrid rat. This of course proved 
the poor old woman's innocence, and she was reinstated in 
their service. 
But how was it that the rat died through eating candles ? 
The truth was, it was poisoned. It appears it is the custom 
now-a-days for tallow-chandlers to mix arsenic with the 
tallow ; but for what purpose I cannot say, unless to make 
them white. 
The following recipe is recommended for the destruc- 
tion of rats, because it is tasteless, odourless, and impalpable. 
^' Take two ounces of carbonate of barytes, and mix it with 
one pound of dripping." It produces great thirst, and 
death after drinking ; thereby preventing the animals going 
