SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
SS 
to bring to bank the horses and fodder, and to close the pit for a time. 
On one oceasion, when the holiday had extended to about a fortnight, 
during which the rats had been deprived of food, on re-opening the 
pit the first man who descénded was attacked by starving rats, and 
speedily killed and devoured. Other peculiar instances are on record, 
including one where patients in hospital at Goccrito, Trinidad, suffering 
from leprosy, had their toes eaten off by rats. The rats seemed to know 
that the patients were too weak to defend themselves against their 
attacks. 
Damacr pone sy Rars. 
It has been estimated that the damage done. to foodstuffs alone 
amounts in value to no less than £15,000,000 annually. If to this were 
added the amount of loss through destruction of articles of various 
kinds, other than foodstuffs, the total sum would be enormous. 
Goods stations and other railway premises, docks, wharfs, cattle and 
pig lairs are all frequented by rats. In town and country alike, and in 
towns in particular all the year round, they frequent common sewers, 
hen runs, allotments, market gardens, dwellings, shops (butchers’, 
grocers’, fish, confectioners’, fruiterers’, &c.), bakehouses, cafés, whole- 
sale meat establishments, slaughter-houses, triperies, warehouses,. 
granaries, flour mills, paper mills, large stores, workshops and factories, 
sewage farms, scavenging tips, knackeries, marine stores, hotels, fancy 
goods and millinery establishments, and other premises too numerous to 
mention. In town and country, rats frequent rubbish heaps in séarch of 
food, and occasionally migrate from such centres in large numbers. On 
farm premises, corn, cattle food, potatoes, and other kinds of foodstuffs 
are destroyed. Even chickens and young ducks are carried off. By 
burrowing beneath and in close proximity to buildings, rats frequently 
_let down the drains, thus bringing about open joints and other insani- 
tary conditions. In search of water, pipes are gnawed through, causing 
leakage and the flooding of premises. Woodwork within dwellings, 
offices, warehouses, and buildings of every description receives particular 
attention. Walls may be riddled until the building is simply honey- 
combed. Within butchers’ shops, during the night, rats will climb down 
the iron rods until they reach suspended quarters of beef, and cause 
an immense amount of damage by eating into the fleshy parts. In 
drapery and house-furnishing establishments, the annual damage 
amounts, in various instances, from £50 to £250; in fact, ten or a dozen 
fur muffs may be destroyed within one night, and curtains, ladies’ hats, 
towels, blankets, and other softgoods are known to be destroyed regularly. 
The hair seating of chairs is sometimes gnawed through and the stuffing 
removed, presumably for the purpose of nest-making. It must be 
remembered that the foregoing are only a few samples of the innumer- 
able kinds of foodstuffs and articles damaged. A precise list of material 
damage caused by rats would, undoubtedly, be most startling. 
Preventive Mrasvrns. 
Whatever measures are adopted against rats, by way of prevention, 
those that are calculated to make it impossible for them to obtain food 
and water should be considered as being the most important. Animal 
foodstuffs used in stables, byres, kennels, poultry farms, and other 
premises should be kept in metal or sheet-iron bins, : 
292 
