The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1916-01-25
The Rat Problem Of Cities.

The connection between rats and
plague has led to the accumulation
of information regarding the fire.
quency of their association with hu-
man habitations, as well as their de-
structiveness. Studies have been
made which throw light on the ques-
tion of the number Of parasites
which have been permitted through
lcarelessness to exist in the immediate
Ineighborhood of man. Until these
comparatively recent Investigations,
scarcely any one would have believed
how large a number of rodents find
means of livelihood for themselves
in our cities and towns, especially
those which have a series of docks
and wharves A special report Of
plague eradication work at New Or
leans, made by the surgeon in charge
of the United States Public Helath
Service work at that point, contains
rather startlingly Illuminating facts
concerning these parasites.
The total number of rodents cap
tured up to November 13 of the past
year runs up to 497,983. Some idea
of the immense labor and the meticu-
lous care required for thoroughness
in sanitary work may be gathered
from the fact that over 100000 of
these rodents had been examined up
to the same date, and, though alto
gether only 265 cases of rodent pla-
que were discovered, it is easy to un-
derstand how much of a danger for
the dissemination of the disease
these animals were. Until the ac
tual report, it would have been al
most impossible to believe that a city
like New Orleans, with its half mil
lion rodents, actually harbored lar
ger population of rats and mice than
it did of human beings.
New Orleans is probably no worse
in this regard than most of the coast
cities of the southern part of the
country, at least, and it is probable
that as careful a hunt for the crea-
lures would reveal their presence in
proportionate numbers even in many
of the towns of the interior. 1t is
scarcely necessary to call attention
to the fact that this immense number
of parasites, which SO often get at
food materials, constitute distinct
danger not alone as regards plague,
though their direct connection with
human diseases has been traced only
with this great scourge. 1t is al
most needless to say, too, that when
existing in such immense numbers
they are eminently destructive di-
rectly and indirectly, and represent
one factor in the waste of food ma
terials which makes for want in this
country and is adding to the high
cost of living. Undoubtedly what is
taken to feed these rodents, or what
is thrown out and serves them for
sustenance, would keep from serious
want many human family that feels
the pinch of lowered nutrition.
Coast cities like New Orleans, San
Francisco, Seattle and some of the
other towns on Puget Sound have
been compelled to take up the prob
lem of obliteration of their rodent
parasites by the occurrence of plague.
The Journal of the American Medical
Association thinks, however, that it
would be well worth while, for
health authorities in other towns and
cities to face this problem frankly
before it becomes source of actual
immediate danger to health, because
there is no doubt that the presence of
these pests is extremely insanitary in
many ways besides being seriously
wasteful. If it should prove that the
rodent population of most of our
towns and cities, as in the case of
| New Orleans, was nearly if not quite
as numerous as the human popula-
ton, the significance and urgent i'm
portance of this problem would be
readily understood.