The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1915-06-18
Public Health Service Traps and
Examines Fifteen Hundred
Rats Here Each Month
STEAMERS ARE WATCHED:
FUMlGATloN is REGULAR
Crusade Against Dread Diseases,
Including Malaria and Yel-
low Fever, Worldwide

| ..r.
Fifteen hundred rats are being trap
ped in Honolulu each month by the
United States public health service, un
der DIR. Frederick X. Trotter, surgeon
in command. This is part,of the cam
paign Of the service against buboniC
plague. Humans are infected by feas
IDEAS get the disease from rats; enc
rats, no plague" as Doctor Trottel
said yesterday.
The worldwide fight against rat.
was inaugurated by Surgeon Genera
Rupert Blue Of the public health service
three years ago. New interest in it is
created by an address made by DoctoI
Blue at San Francisco Monday, before
the American Society of Tropical Medi
cine.
Rats caught here are examined in the
laboratory Of the health service. The
| glands under the fore legs, as under
the human arm, and in the groin, as in
he human groin, are seats of evidence
Of the disease, and they are examined
carefully. The spleen is subjected tC
microscopical examination, also.
No Plague Rats Here
| No plague rats have been found here
in FIVE years. There has been no raj
IT human plague on the Island of Ha
vail since August, 1914, but rats con
inue to be trapped there in large mum
oers. In the five weeks ending May
g, according to the report of the ter
itorial board of health, 1884 rats
were destroyed.
/ Since there is no plague here now
here will be none unless infected rats
are brought here in ships. To guarC
against this, vessels are subjected t.
frequent fumigation, killing the rats
che frequency of fumigation depends
IN the ports from which the ships come
There are only two plague ports il
he continental United States: New Or
cans and Seattle. Ships sailing from
hese ports are fumigated before de
Darture, or must submit to fumigatiOI
lere. All South American ports ar
Inder the same rule, and so are Chini
,orts. The japanese, however, ar
ecognized as being clean, unless spec
al circumstances arise. Chinese port
lfways are under suspicion.
inter Island ships Fumigated
Inter.Island steamers are fumigate,
ach three months except those whicl
ouch at Hawaii, which are fumigate'
zach month, In general, ships mus
Undergo fumigation each six months
'egardless of the ports from which the.
;ome.
However, few rats are found in tn
vessels. For example, the steame
Korea has been fumigated eleven time
since July 10, 1912, and no rats wer
found. In Island vessels, eighty rat
were found in ninety-seven vessels dur
,ng the last fiscal year, and, in min
Iessels from foreign ports, fumigate'
Iere, only thirteen rats were found. /
honolulu, 23,529 were trapped. On %
Jessels fumigated at San Francisco
!7l6 rats were found.
The work here is excepting a fnge
IN the pulse of the rats" as Doc to
rrotter described it. Every effort
made to exterminate the rodents. |
here is a complaint from a hOuseholde
hat he is Overrun with rats, the healt
'ervice will help eradicate them b
trapping. Traps are kept at differen
Joints throughout the city and espeC
tally on the waterfront, where a playa
infected rat would make his. first al
pearance. The number of rats kilc
and examined, taken from many place
thows that the city is clean. Shout
IN infected animal be found, the di
srict from which it was taken wOul
be gone over in an effort to exterminat
he rats within it.
Keeping Rats Prom Buildings
"People are realizing that the be'
way to fight rats is to keep them froI
buildings, not to give them a place
creep in, and to keep them in the open,
aid Doctor Trotter. "For that rel
ION, old floors are being torn up an
oncTete substituted. San Francisco hs
| lone this until that city has ratprOC
waterfront, recognized as such through
out the world. We have no rat.proc
waterfront here. Hundreds of RAJ
P could be sheltered in some of tn
D wharves.
This condition makes strict care a
the more necessary.
Doctor Trotter was asked what
? probably thought a typical layman
question.
"Do you think it possible to extern
mate all the rats Of the world if
careful and concerted effort wei
nadei"
He said he did not.
E Noah's Ark Carried Plague
Some folk may be astOunded al
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