The etiology and epidemiology of plague : a summary of the work of the Plague Commission.

  • India. Plague Commission.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The etiology and epidemiology of plague : a summary of the work of the Plague Commission. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    23/110 (page 11)
    As regards the other rodents in Bombay little need be said as they do not influence the plague epidemic. Nesokia bengalensis is not common as it appears to be in Calcutta. It was taken in those sections of Bombay city where there are fairly large areas of waste grovmd and was trapped in the ground-floors of houses, in gulHes, in stables and in godowns The bandicoot is now an extremely rare animal in Bombay, It was caught only in the open country and palm groves in the northern part of the Island. Mice were taken on all the floors of buildings, in stables and ia godowns. In none of the villages in the neighbourhood of Bombay, with the exception of Parel, was M. decumanns obtained during the year they were under observation. A few of this species were taken in Pare], a village, in which the buildings are very similar to those of Bombay and where there are a certain number of sewers and storm water drains. A few specimens of Nesokia bengalensis were taken in these villages. M. rattus was found to be very common in the villages. Its habits and haunts were the same as in Bombay. In two of the villages, namely, Parel and Worli, a very thorough and systematic examination of the rat infestation was made during the period they were under observation. This waa done by setting daily a number of traps in the difierent houses and recording the number of rats caught in each trap. The traps were sent in the houses^^in rotation according to the census num- bering. In Parel 2,195 M. rattus, a number equal to two-thirds of the himian population, were captured during the year. This number gives an average of 15 rats per building. From one building, which was divided into 16 tenements and sheltered 70 inhabitants, as many as 393 rats were taken. At the beginning of the opera- tions 65 rats per 100 traps set were captured, while at the end of the year this number had been reduced to 34 rats per 100 traps set- not a very great reduction. We can conclude, then, that the rat infestation of Parel is very considerable, and that, despite the capture and removal from the village during the year's operations of a