The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-11-20
FROM FOREIGN LANDS.
Rats and Undesirable Insects Aboard
 Ship.

Ship.
 Not only are the inhabitants Of this country, excepting, of course, the Indi- and, descended from peoples of non- American origin, but this nOn-American origin also applies to a great number of animals. insects and plants, which, the same as human immigrants, come to this couitry in all sorts of floating craft every day, and make this land their future home. Uncle Sam is al- ways glad and ready to accord hearty welcome to the desirable immigrant, but he draws the line at criminals, paul. pers, contract laborers, the insane and the Chinese. The Marine Hospital ser I vice also draws the line at rats which arrive in this country with every ship that touches an American port. Never i before in the hisetory of the United States Marine Hospital service has here been waged such a determined warfare against the admission of rats into this country as at the present time, with the approach of the cold season, and since it has been fully established that rats are more dangerous and pro- life in carrying the most virulent dis eases than any other agent.
 Rats inhabit nearly all vessels, whether built of wood or iron, and they come and go with the freedom of pas sengers with tickets prepaid to distant ports. Sometimes they become too nu- merous. Then it is that the profession al rat-catchers have their hands full, chasing the rodents with ferrets and dogs from one part of the ship to an- other, and the slaughter is great. But 1 these spasmodic attempts to clear the ships of rats are like drops of water in the ocean. There seems to be no appre- ciable diminution in their nn1bers, and when the ship warps up to her pier and loads with another cargo of grain, she may carry in her hold as many rodents as when she rst entered the harbor. This is due to the fact that there is a regular migration of rats going on all the time. .s-4 Sailors do not object to the presence of rats on shipboard; indeed, they con- sider them safe shipnates and sure signs that the vessel in seaworthy and not in danger of sinking. The sight of the rats deserting a ship is sufficient to discourage any sailor from going on board for trip, but, on the other hand, too many rats aboard spoil everything. Numbers make them bold, and instead of staying in the hold where the cargo 1 is stored, they will appear in the sailors $ i quarters and even in the captains cab 1 in. A ship oovercrowded in this way with rats becomes an unpleasant abid- 1 ing place.
 Strange experiences have been rela- 1 ted of stowaways being driven from their hiding place in the hold of the ships by the nightly appearance of the rats in such numbers as to threaten them with danger to their lives. Few can stand the nightly company of sev- eral hundred inquisitive rodents, almost as large as kittens, especially when the hold of the ship is unilluminated by the slightest ray of light from above, and a species of uncomfortable terror general ly seizes the stowaway before the ship ] is two days out. It is easier to face an irate and ugly captain than the fierce- eyed rodents of the hold.
 But rats are not by any means the only strange shipnates that travel the sea on ships without the knowledge or consent of the captain and owners. There are many insects that migrate from one quarter of the globe to anoth- CT by means of the vessels which ply between distant ports. Indeed, the spread of nearly all kinds Of living crea- lures has been dependent upon the ships of civilized nations. Winged pests and blessings have been steadily carried to new countries by this means, and the invasion of this land by insects, bugs and crawling things in recent years has caused not a little talk of leg islation against the admission of tropi- cal fruits and seeds until after they have been thoroughly examined and quarantined.
 Under the title Vessels as Carriers of Mosquitoes" the Yellow Fever Institute of the Bureau of Public Health, and Marine Hospital Service at Washing ton, recently published pamphlet of which S. B. Grubbs, passed assistant surgeon of the Marine Hospital service, is the author. Dr. Grubbs said in part: "At the present time, when evidence is pointing with more and more clearness to the mosquito as the sole means of transmitting yellow fever, nothing is of greater interest to the quarantine off, cer than to decide to what extent and under what circumstances these infect ing insects may be carried by vessels" The report contains the; work of one season of inspecting vessels arriving at Gulf Quarantine station from stegomy- ,la-infected ports, and says that Every vessel has been carefully examined to ascertain if mosquitoes were present on board, and, if present, their variety; where and when they came aboard, and under what conditions Concluding his report, Dr. Grubbss says: From but one seasons observations at sim gle quarantine station we can not as- sume to draw any hard and fast conclu- sions regarding the probability of stego- myia, infected or not, being carried by vessels. Nevertheless, think we may conclude, first, that mosquitoes can come aboard vessels under favorable conditions when the vessel is not over fifteen miles from shore; second, that stegomyia can be carried from Mexico or West Indian ports to those of our gulf states; third, that hey can board a vessel lying at anchor a lalf-mile or