The evening times., 1898-11-19
PLAGUE RATS.
How They Infest Bombay and On!er
Stricken Places.
(Erom the Times OF Indis.)

Hrom the Times of IndsD
Domestic rats do not burrow and live
underground or make their domiciIes in
drains or sewers into which they can Sc
cure a ready entrance. As their name in
dicates. they live In houses. and bring up
their young in the least disturbed and
most inaccessible corners. Their power of
locomotion gives them the entire freedom
of the house. That Bombay should al
ways be filled with rats is explained by
the circumstance that the city is the cen
ter of very large grain trade. and that
this grain is stored mostly on the ground
floors of houses for convenience in hand
ling The grain godowns'' of Bombay are
not only numerous. but are scattered all
over the city. The large 'godowns,
which are used chiefly by the large deal
ers, are mostly in Mandvie, to be near the
docks. The numerous smaller godowns
are scattered about in the most populous
districts of the native town. As the grain
in all these godowns. large and small.
is stored in tiers on the ground floor of
the godowns in piles or tiers of tens and
twenties. with without planks, beams
or other wooden dunnageS beneath, the
arrangement encourages colonies of rats
to use the grain godowns as domiciles for
their tribe. There they live and thrive:
there they breed and rear their young.
and there they are secure from attack
alike from men, as from dogs and cats
and all their other enemies The grain
godowns of Bombay have been forever in
creasing. and the rats have increased with
the number of godowns. The godowns, 1t
should be mentioned, have been the domi-
Giles the feeding ground and the strong
holds of the rats, and it is not easy to
conceive any more effective plan of sue
cessful rat breeding than that which has
been established in our godowns by the
grain dealers of Bombay.
At the time of the first visitation of
plague in Bombay, in August or Septem-
ber 1886. the city must have been filled
with an unusual superabundance of rats,
seeing that every ingenuity which the
human mind might devise for the most
complete and extensive breeding of do
mestic rats had been in actual operation
in Bombay for half a century. To this
complete system of rat-breeding has to
be added the facts that grain dealers
and Hindoos generally keep neither cats
nor dogs in the houses. and that the de-
struction of rats is regarded by these
classes as a religious proclamation and
dire sin. This popularity OF the masses
of the people gives the finishing touch to
the apparent mystery of rat-breeding and
rat preservation. There is no mystery in
the matter at ALL The facts connected
with rat-breeding and rat preservation
are evident to the meanest comprehen-
sion. When oar plague first came Bonn
bay must have been ''Urbs primus' in
rats if in nothing else. and in those ear
ly days of the plague numerous houses
in the Mandvie district exhibited every
morning large numbers of dead
rs IS thrown out of the rooms and from
II staircases of houses. awaiting re-
m oval by the scavengers of all that the
crows had not previously feasted on.
From the beginning on the plague until
nov dead rats have been found i'm houses
and in the streets as regular antecedents
OF plague among the people in the near
vicinity. Dead rats have been discovered
| first and plague cases such close second