The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-02-19
DR.. |. {. COFER'S
SEATTLE WORK
What the Rat Fight in BubOnic
Plague Means and Its
Methods.

"The whole world is indeed waking
UP to the economic peril to which the
rat exposes the human race" said DR..
Cofer yesterday. 1.-THE agency of the
rat in the spread of bubonic plague
has brought about study of the rat
which has never been given it before.
1t was what / learned about the rat
that made my experience in Seattle SO
erything about the rat that I could
find for a long time, and yet 1 learned
a great deal about the rat in Seattle
which 1 had never read in books.
Seattle suffered three ascertaiued
deaths from plague and three that
were in all probability from plague.
These all occurred before 1 was sent
there and when / got there it was a
learning all about the disease that the
rats could tell US. The bounty system.
was used there to encourage the de-
struction of rats, and besides that a
way and by our own agents was es-
tablished. The city was districted and
a thorough and systematic work was
begun. In this work had some of the
most interesting experiences of my life.
OF the men whom we employed, one of
them, a Pole, came to us and claimed
to be an expert rat-catcher. He offer
ed to work for eighty dollars a month
provided we would pay him 500 if he
made good. I asked him what he
meant by making good, and he said
that if he came in with from twenty to
thirty live rats day he thought he
would be making good. l thought so
too and he was employed and proved
of the highest value. He seemed to
know the rats, and their methods and
processes of thought. He was more
successful in catching rats than any
other of our employees; and his judg-
Tnent in such matters was found al
most invariably correct. He had
great many theories regarding rats all
of which seemed to be very reasonable
and some of which we found were
correct.
''One of our most valuable expert
is a great deal in properly adjusting
the bait and fixing the traps so that
the rat is caught instead of getting
away. For it was live rats that we
We're after. Live rats, if they are in
fected with fleas showing bubonic in
feetion tell of the danger point, and
may give some hint of the source of
infection and the course of infection.
The f4eas which carry the disease from
the rat to the human being begin to
leave a rat when he is dead. 1t is the
live rat that we sought. We examined
90, 900 rats before we found one that
showed the bubonic bacillus. Up to
the time 1 left Seattle over $4,000 rats
had been examined.
I'VE experimental with dyeing rats
and turning them loose to see where |
they would be captured again. In this /
way we proved that the rat is a great !
traveller, and yet that the direction and i
course he will take can be predeter- |
mined, within certain limits. When
people asked me why the government |
was so concerned to stamp out plague .
which did not kill nearly as many as
] 'ohtheria or scarlet fever, my answer
was reinforced by what our expert
nents showed. If a case of diphtheria
appears in house, a placard posted I
ID on the house warns everybody of
he danger, and then it is their own
ault, so to speak, if they get into dan
ger But with bubonic plague it is
7fefarent The rat that carries it is a
traveller, and may carry the disease
% your house without your knowing
t or having any means to prevent it.
tContinued on Page Two.)