Volume VI 
No. 1 
APRIL, 1913 
OBSERVATIONS ON BRITISH RAT-FLEAS\ 
J ULY—October, 1911. 
The observations here recorded relate to rat-fleas : (I) in Suffolk 
and North Essex, and (II) in Cambridgeshire. 
(I) The report by Messrs Strickland and Merriman has entailed 
a great deal of labour. The field work was mainly carried out by 
Mr Merriman, who, during the extreme heat of summer, was obliged 
to bicycle many miles, almost daily, to the different localities 
where the rat-catching was being conducted. It was essential, if 
reliable results were to be obtained, that the collector should, so to 
speak, be at the rat-catcher’s elbow during the operations. The work 
of determining the many specimens of fleas collected was, on the other 
hand, carried out by Mr Strickland, who also shared in the field work 
when time permitted. The field work commenced on 2nd July, 1911, 
and ended on 23rd October, 1911. 
(II) The I’eport by Mr Strickland and myself upon rat-fleas in 
Cambridgeshire is very brief, although it took a good deal of time to 
collect the data upon which it is based. 
GEORGE H. F. NUTTALL, 
Quick Professor of Biology, Cambridge. 
1 Republished by permission of H.M. Stationery Office from Forty-first Ann. Rep. of 
the Local Gov. Board 1911-1*2, Supplement containing the Report of the Medical Officer, 
being Appendix B., No. 6, pp. 336-349 with 3 charts.— Ed. 
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