Government to Begin Rat Killing.

Precautionary Measures Against the Bubonic Plague Being Seriously Considered.

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 21. A wholesale extermination of rats is contemplated by German sanitary officials as a precaution against the plague. Consul General Wyman is informed that the health officers at Bremen have made the following recommendation in this direction.

"Reports and investigations prove that rats and other vermin are the principal transmitters of the plague. Owing to the impossibility of preventing rats from coming on board vessels at foreign ports and subsequently escaping to the land, the only defense against the danger which threatens us is to exterminate these animals as far as possible. Vessels engaged in traffic between the sea and ports where the existence of plague is suspected should be supplied with cats. Poison should also be used, and such ships should be well smoked after the removal of the cargo. On shore, the rats must be fought with cats and rat-catching dogs. Rewards must also be offered for the delivery of dead rats. In order to encourage port watchmen and harbor companies to keep rat-catching dogs, a premium of $7.50 per animal should be allowed to the owner of each such dog, the total number at Bremen and Bremerhaven not to exceed twenty-five. With this allowance, port employees will be willing to keep dogs and pay the dog tax.

In addition to the $187 needed for this purpose, $170 should be appropriated for paying a premium of 10 cents for each dead rat delivered. The dead bodies can be disposed of in the ovens of the gas works and in the central heaters of the ports. The possibility that the premiums may encourage the bringing in of dead rats from other places cannot be avoided. Another means for getting rid of rats is to sulphurize the sewers in Bremen and to flood with river water those at Bremerhaven. Both of these plans are being considered. Owners of warehouses and barns near the ports are urged in their own interest to do their utmost to destroy the rats nesting therein.

"Furthermore, they are required, as are all port employees, to send to the bacteriological institute all rats found dead without visible wounds, in order that they may be examined for traces of plague. Consideration is now being given to the question as to whether and when this requirement should be extended to the public generally, as has already been done at Hamburg. The question as to whether a general destruction of rats by means of poison should be resorted to is also being considered. For various reasons a decision has yet been reached on either of these points."