Cylchgronau Cymru

SOME NOTES ON THE BROWN AND THE BLACK RAT IN THE CITY AND PORT OF CARDIFF. By COLIN MATHESON, M.A., B.Sc. This beast is four times so big as the Common Mouse it is not unworthily counted venomous They are more noysome than the little Mouse, for they live by stealth, and feed upon the same meat that they feed upon, and therefore as they exceed in quantity, so they devour more, and do far more harm The History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents," by Edward Topsel, 1617. The reasons for the investigations outlined in these brief notes may be explained as follows. In each year since 1922 a report on rats and their parasitic fleas from ships and warehouses at Cardiff docks has been published in the Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health to the Port Sanitary Authority, the original object in view being the acquisition of data as to the possible transmission of plague. When the present writer took over the preparation of these reports, in 1926, he came to the conclusion that the extension of rat-catching activities-so as to obtain a sufficient number annually of these rodents to determine various points such as seasonal variation in the degree of infestation by parasites- would be another useful step, both from the zoological and the medical standpoint. This was done-about nine hundred rats having been examined in 1928-and it suggested further the advisability of obtaining comparable data for the city as distinct from the Port Sanitary Area, as has been done for example in various parts of the United States.1 The recording of such data for the City of Cardiff was begun in March, 1928, the rats being collected by the rat- catcher employed in the Medical Officer of Health's xFox, C., and Sullivan, E. C. "A Comparative Study of Rat-Flea Data for Several Seaports of the United States." U.S. Public Health Reports, Vol. 40, No. 37 (Sept. 11, 1925), pp. 1909-1934.