Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-08-11

(fhods to Prevent the Infected Rat
 From Bringing Plague to America

.heAelOfe lOCiSed on these points
 How do you fight plague? To fight plague you must not only wage a war of absolute eXtermfnation upon the rat but you must also trace the i disease among the rodent populatien and prevent it's being transmitted to man.
 To eNterminate the rodents you must take into consideration every single factor of their existence.
 The first thing is to cut off the rats food supply This sinplfes a clean household both inside and out- side. Il does not mean that the rem nants ol the meals are merely out of sight, Or that the refuse from the stables can be thrown into an uncov- cred hin, but 1t means that all foods which might tempt the rat shall be rendered inaccessible by the use or metal containers or metal screening.
 Once you have done this it is easy to kill the rats off by using poisons. It has been my observation that phos- pherous paste is one of the best pols- onous agents. It shines at night and the rats seem to like it's taste and i odor. Another advantage it has is that it detericates, hence you are not 1 likely to kill an animal you never intended to harm a couple Of years after you put the pooison out. No matter what kind of poison is used it must be put out carefully so that children and domestic animals will not come in contact with it.
 Tn order to trace the course of the disease in rats it is necessary to ob- tain samples of the rodent population. l To do this two kinds of traps are used the large wire cage trap and the smaller snap trap. The cage trap 1 has the advantage that it takes the
 rats live and thus permits scientific I investigation of the fleas upon their bodies. In this connection it may he
 stated that in San Francisco and Porto ! Rico many careful studies are being made of the different species of fleas.
 It requires just as much intelll-
 gence and care to trap rats as 1t does to trap or otter. The rat bait should be firmly attached to the trap
 the tran must be placed in the run
 way of the rat. The surroundings
 must be changed as little as possible and every precaution taken to prevent frightening the quarry Time and
 labor are required to train rat trap ners. And a percuiar continuation of
 skill and patience is necessary to produce good rodent hunter. All captured rats must be tagged
 to show, where, when and how and
 by whom they are captured. They
 are then taken to laboratory and examined by skilled corps of offi- :. cers for evidence of disease.
 The captured rats are first emersed in an antiseptic solution to kill the - fleas. Next a tacker affiXes the ra' to shingle. The shingle is thef '' given a number so that even II thf tae is lost, the identity of the ra
 remains established.
 Next the rat is passed to the sKln ', ner. who, with a pair of 1orceps Il N ono hand and sharp sealpel Ill lh'
 other reflects the skin from the aoao mon of the rat and looks at the arn
 nits and groins for enlarged glahos 11o +ben onens the body and looks fo
 other evidence of disease. It, IS re '' n,arkable how skillful these laborer u hecome in recognizing plague, lep . rosy, and the host of other disease
 which affect rats.
 Next the rats are gone over care le f,1,, by an officer who. has nee II +rained in hygenic labratory in tn III recoenition of this disease Shoul ~ he find anything suspicious ne make V V the meteorological cultures necessas y to establish ar disprove his diagnosis Suppose that a plague infected ra y is found the field force is immealatt 'n " lv notified and the district from whic 7s inc infected animal came is sup]ecte oi to a thorough cleaning and deratizf Id tion. +hot bax ~ These are the measures 'na' na' ol heen nut in force in Porto RICO al ps in puerta De Tierra. Large numpe' 'n of insanitary buildings nave also pee iu destroyed, others have been rat proo ~ ed hv the use of impervious materis lis such as concrete and sheet iron' al al ' still others have been raised III U < air so as to allow easy acces r '
 cat and the dog, the natural eh . v mics of the rat
 ko, 3,,xx, g1 z, AlNS1 l00 on long elme