CO129-410 - Governor Sir May - 1914 [3-5] — Page 249

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I attach a Table showing the number of rats caught or found dead during the first twenty weeks of each year since the wholesale rat poisoning scheme was instituted. The weeks in which general poisoning was carried out are indicated, and it will be seen that the total excess- thus secured in 1910

was about 1000, in 1911 about 1100 and in 1912 about 800 rate. The Table shows also that even in non-Plague years the rat mortality rises rapidly as the atmospheric temperature increases. No special importance can be attached to the fact that no plague rats were found for five weeks following the

rat poisoning in 1912, for during that period 43 human cases

of bubonic plague occurred in the City, and therefore there

must have been plenty of Plague rats undiscovered or so

decomposed as to be unfit for examination: moreover, if it

Tag a natural sequel, it would have held equally good for

1910 and 1913. The campaign in the City in 1913 was inten-

tionally delayed, because nearly all the cases reported

during the first four months occurred in the remote village

of Shaukiwan,

It will be seen that the actual number of rate collect-

ed has almost doubled in the past five years and although

•

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I attribute this to an increase in the rat population due to

increased food supply, which in itself is the result of

large increases in the human population, yet it is equally

permissible for anyone to assume that our rat-destroying

agencies have doubled their efficiency, if the alternative

explanation is not acceptable.

T

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I have secured a spare copy of the United States Public

Health Report for January 23rd 1914 which I accordingly

enolose.

March 31st, 1914.

(2)

Rover Clark

M.O.H.