Arizona republican., 1901-05-26
AN INDICTMENT OF THE RAT.
His Share in the Work Of Spreading
 Disease.


 Until recently it has been difficult to convict the rat of any graver offense than larceny, damage to articles of food which he could not carry away or cOm- pletely devour on the spot, and the con- struction of rapid transit tunnels with out any charter. These offenses have been aggravating in the extreme, but they never led to any concerted move ment for his extinction There has been no cooperation among thoSe who sought to capture op destroy him. But it is now known that he is more than a mere nuisance. As a dissemlnator of disease he works much more serious in- jures to human society than those hitherto charged to his account, ana there are signs that this discovery may lead to a systematic crusade against the offender.
 A Japanese bacteriologist. Dr. Ma shuda. who was visiting in Chicago a few days ago, declares that the mika- dos government is likely to propose to other nations a league against this TO- dent. The story is not improbable.
  gresses to diacues cholera. bubonic plague. tuberculosis leprosy and other infectious maladies. Why should not all civilized countries unite to suppress such a well recognized danger to health as rats?
 Ths malady with which these animals are most closely associated in the puo- lie mind Is the bubonfc plague. Thou sands of them-pcrhac 1t would be safe to say hundreds of thousands of them-are carried off by this disease in Oriental countries every year. Indeed. 1t is not uncommon for rats to die from that cause in house before any hu- man subjects are attacked by 1t. Rats are such ramblers, moreover, that 1t is possible for them to infect a whole nelghborhood before the fact Is dsaov- cred; and as they often die in inacces- able places their bodies may remain hidden but active sources of infection for days and weeks. The germs of the bubonlc plague are transmitted to the soil and air in this mahaer and thus find easy entrance to the lungs, food and skin scratches of human beings.
 Only a few weeks ago man in Car diff. Wales was employed to clear store of dead rats, a kind of rat epi- demic having prevailed there. A week or so later the man himself suocumbed to a mysterious attacl. of Illness, which eventually proved to be the genuine bu.. bonic plague. When such an incident can occur In healthy port like Cardiff. it Is easy to understand how the same ix r., tAt t,otG inf in the filthy, crowded tenementa of place like Bombay or Hong Kong.
 But there Is reason to suspect the rat of ccnp,!cty with the dissemination of other diseases also. The singular pref crence which some disorders show for one claso of animals and their compara- tive indifference to another is a re- markable phenomenon. Thus, cows are peculiarly susceptible to tuberculosis but that disease never affects a rabbit unless the later is artifclally inocu- lated. Cats rarely acquire diphtheria in a natural manner, although they will develop the proper symptoms if diph- theria germs are introduced into their immune against the disease. An
  as big as is necessary to sicken cat will not affect a rat at all. On the ether hand. the latter is almost the only known creature, aaiGe from man, which acquires the bubonic plague. Cats ana dogs occasionally but rarely, take It. Again. few animals beside the hog ever suffer from trichinae, and among these few are rats and mice. Tn fact, rats are suspected of being one CT the means whereby hogs are infected with para sites. Trchinae get into man or an an- imal only through the blood. Rata anu hogs are both flesh eaters, and If healthy hog had chanNe to eat dead rat in whose body lot of trichinae were curled up It would do So without hesitation and would suffer the conse- ouences. So far as is known, the only way in which hogs can become infected Is to eat the the flesh of trichinifer- ou, rat. mouse, cat 'or puppy Full grown dogs never suffer from this trou- ble.
 But rats and mice can transmit the germs of other diseases than those o' which they are themselves the victims. Ii is a well established fact that conn mon flies carry typhoid and other oaie- ful bacteria on their feet from masses of infected matter to perfectly clean articles of food which are carelessiy ex- posed. Now, it is not so clearly proved that rats and mice act m the same manner. although it is probable that they do 60 some extent. pr. w. II. Park mentions a case in point:
 A culture of a certain bacillus that was under examination had been made in a. bacteriological laboratory. A mouse got access to the tube, ate some of the gelatinous masf in which tue col