The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-08
WITHOUT RATS
WE ARE SAFE
Continued from Page one,


San Francisco and Seattle. In most of
! these ports it has acted as you have
seen it here-smouldering. with
small, isolated outbreak now and then,
| only awaiting those favorable condi-
tions, the nature of which we are ig-
norant. to light up and devastate as
no other disease can. In two in
| stances, at least, it has demonstrated
| it's ability to strike as hard today as
it did in the past; when conditions be-
come favorable These two examples
are in widely-separated parts of the
world-one in Mazatlan, Mexico,
town of 10000 persons. Plague APP
peared there in the winter of 1903-all
| fled that could, $500 or 400 remaining;
of these 1850 lost their lives in few
months. The other example is India,
or, rather, that part of India which is
infected. This disease reached Bonn
bay in 1896. probably brought directly
from Hongkong 1t has continued its
ravages ever since, and up to this year
has destroyed 10000 persons in that
: city.
when the disease has once gained
foothold the one effective remedy
which remains is the destruction of
the rat This is difficult task indeed,
not only are these rodents very numer-
Gus in every locality, but the fact that
! they are continually being brought in
/ from the outside by ships and other
common carriers as well as by volun-
! tary migration, and the fact that the
female gives birth to several families
each year, ranging from five to seven
j In each brood and these in turn be-
come mothers in a few months, add to
our difficulties. Another factor in this
is that nature has so constructed the
rat that the tendency is for the num-
4 Der to keep abreast of the food supply.
/ Under natural conditions the compe-
tition for livelihood is always sharp
| one with these rodents, and thereby
/ the law of the survival of the fittest
holds their increase within certain
/ bounds Every rat destroyed lessons
this competition and multiplication be-
comes more rapid as result, and
larger per cent. reach maturity.
IF the destruction proceeds so rap
! idly that the number is decreased in
spite of the increased multiplication,
those III the litOES II0NNC0 oiS1AA~e@
| surrounding the area in which the de-
struction is going on, learn that food
is easier to obtain there and migrate,
so one must not only be prepared to
destroy his own but his neighbors' rats
as well. Of course, this does not APP
ply in such force to Honolulu. Being
/ situated on an island. there is limit
TO those that can come to the feast,
and If all vessels are required to wear
rat guards, their being brought by
common carriers can also be elimi-
mated.
1.-The chief measures employed to
destroy them consist in: rendering
buildings rat proof so as to deprive
them of shelter and one means Of OBJ
tanning food; the covering of all gar
bage which supplies them with food;
placing rat guards around the trunks
of bean and fruit bearing trees in local
tiles where the black rat abounds as
it does here; the seeming of sewers
which act as their chief thoroughfares
and hiding places Tin the case of the
grey rat); the offering Of rewards for
rats caught and brought in accom-
panied by a severe penalty for raising
rats for this purpose; the placing out
of poisons-these should be of several
kinds in order that the rat may not
come to know, and therefore avoid
them; the use of Danycz virus which
causes a disease among them-its eff
fects are uncertain but sometimes brill
liant, and should always be tried; the
setting of traps, the most expensive
and least effective of all methods, bIH
in spite of this it can often be used
where we dare not place poisons
= Re m
help in meeting a situation requiring
vigorous rat destruction bear in mind
that it is a work of years. and 1t is
a work in which the public funds must
be expended very freely, Furthermore
that until the several nations have
combined to act in harmony in this
matter IL is a work that must be kept
up for an indefinite period after your
own have been destroyed.
1.-THE task is such great one that
7 fear few communities will take 1t
up seriously unless conditions are such
that il is evident that either the rat
must be destroyed or they viii suffer
severely in both loss of life and COM
merce Much more is this true in
ombination Of nations 10 effect this
work. but as must be evident to all on
Iy by permanent eradication of the rat
can the disappearance of plague be
brought about. }hd the work should
be begun long efore the disease comes.
Such an effort appears distant today
and possibly conditions will not arise
in America and Europe which viii
force man TO take this measure. Still
we can not but believe that, unless the
history of plague counts for naught,
man will have to adopt this means be-
fore he is through with the disease
which is now steadily and surely