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state of their districts with regard to rattiness, and with the application of the powers
to ships this inspection can be extended to deal with ships, these being a source of
supply of rats to the district ashore.
With the duty of rat destruction on ships the expense now falls on the person
in default, namely, the owner or occupier, who is also primarily the person benefited
by deratisation; whereas, formerly, the cost of enforcing disinfestation of a ship on
which Rat Plague was not a known factor, would fall on the Port Sanitary Authority.
The position is such that the obligations in this great measure of Plague precaution
are widely diffused instead of being confined to an officer of an Authority.
It is necessary that under Section V. a definite authorisation be given in writing
to each person empowered under this Act to enter on land.
Your Medical Officer recommended that in case of possible proceedings this
authorisation should be duly made, by means of a written document signed on behalf
of the Local Authority, to—
Your Medical Officer of Health;
The Assistant Medical Officers; and
The Sanitary Inspectors.
The Ministry of Food Rats Order, 1918, as amended, was revoked as from
February 4th, 1920.
CONGRESS OF THE ROYAL SANITARY INSTITUTE AT BIRMINGHAM.
The Port of London Sanitary Authority was represented at Birmingham by your
Chairman. Mr. Walter Fortescue, J.P., and your Medical Officer throughout the
period of the Congress in July. The section dealing with Rat Destruction was among
those of interest to your representatives. Your Medical Officer contributed and read
a short paper on ship rats emphasising the following points:—
(1) Rats on ships are a standing menace to public health by reason of Plague.
(2) The conditions of excessive rattiness are ample stocks of food constantly available to
the rat and undisturbed nesting facilities.
(3) These conditions were fulfilled to excess on ships and on shore during the war. War
conditions no longer operating, the result will be a reduction of the excessive rattiness and
danger of Plague on ships.
(4) The removal of food stuffs from a ship leads to a change of quarters by the rats, and
attempted disinfestation should anticipate this change. The fumigation must follow immediately
on discharge of cargo.
(5) All measures other than fumigation are merely palliative.
(6) Fumigation by means of Sulphur Dioxide is so simple as to require no special skill, and
should commend itself to shipping companies as a domestic measure.
(7) The part of a Port Sanitary Rat Officer under the Rat and Mice Destruction Act should
be one of effective supervision of methods used by the occupier of a ship, not the actual work
of destruction.
(8) Man being an inimical environmental factor in the life of rats, the enlistment, education
and, if necessary, coercion of the many rather than the employment of a few in actual work
of rat destruction, is productive of the best results. Appointment of special rat catchers in ports
by the Sanitary Authorities is therefore to be deprecated.
RATS.
Your Medical Officer approached the Port of London Authority in the matter of
Rats as follows. The correspondence is self-explanatory, and indicates the standpoint
from which the question should in his opinion be approached in future:—
9th November, 1920.
The Dock and Warehouse Superintendent,
The Port of London Authority,
109, Lead enhall Street, E.C.
Sir,
RATS IN THE DOCKS.
The continuous effort put forward in the direction of rat suppression by the Port of London
Authority has always been a matter of satisfaction to the Port Sanitary Authority in view of
possible infection of the docks by Bubonic Plague through rat infections on ships. I think it is
largely due to the resultant separation of the rats present into discontinuous colonies and to the
thinning of these, that no spread has recently been observable in the docks, when from time to
time infections have reached the shore from ships.