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THE TENSAS GAZETTE

Gazette Pubishing Company, Ltd. ffil Paper of the Parish of Tensas School Board and Fifth Loisiana Levee District. $1.PerA

NEW SERIES.VOL. XXV ST. JOSEPH, LOUISIANA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1915 NUMBER 16

IGIHTING Th .§

PLAGUE

SPREADIN

A- RAT L

LdwArd D11aLrk Ea ARJtPCrRANET l,2 Ewo' 6 :: .

LONG the levees guarding the cres

cent-shaped banks of the Missi.

sippi river at New Orleans, the

good rat ship, Neptune, is at its

deadly work. Deadly work which

is life-saving work, done under

the direction of Uncle Sam's pub

lic health service. Rats carry the

parasite which transmits the fright

ful disease, bubonic plague, to

man. The Neptune's work is to

kill the rat and to save man. It

is doing its work most efficiently.

Th Neptune is in charge of Past Assistant Sur

seon Norman Roberts, while Assistant Surgeon-Ge,

eral William C. Rucker is in charge of the general

crusade being conducted by the public health service

against the rat plague and parasite. Dr. Claude C.

Pierce is also one of the determined workers in the

antiplague crusade. This rat-killing ship is worth a

thousand ferrets, a thousand cats and a thousand

tlers in Its work of rodent extermination. With

one breath it can kill 10,000 rats. It can kill the

10,000, but let it be said that

only occasionally Is it called

upon to breathe out death upon

more than 600 of the pests at

one exhalation, for seldom is a

larger number found on one "/IY'-FiT/F C" / ALOfl 5/DE YJEL- V 

ship. /G'ATE" F,,/64T" DOfJTRU/CT/

WhX It is done, nd how it is

dose, it is here the pulrpose ofneath the skin of a human

a laymn to set down, trusting being the plague results.

health service will approve the tember 26, 1914, Assistant

spirit, even if the strict Ian- Surgeon-General Rucker's

guage of science, in which the urgeoneneral R

, pofession usually eommuni-1 report shows that 70 vee

c atee its views, i. here notorious eels with car

Sby its absence. Let it be told sulphur and 13 with car

first how it is doe. bon monoxide and there

The Nhph s ite dean- rA AT were 128,853 packages of

more than a big tub, but wk

it Is well fitted up with week more than eight

uaSrters sor the medwehl thousand rats were trapped

, tocers and the crew who and examined. Hundreds

S navigte it and direct its of premises were fumigat

n gbeaeenit aord. Whe ts ed or disinfected and

there were rumors of the many more places were

tPerawrce o f the dread inspected. During the one

appearance ofn the dreadt week 199 buildings were

l e .It the e Crescmade rat-proof. Altogeth

City, the Neptune put to

sea fro Philadelphia er the number of buildings

a, thus guarded against the

the tripNew O entry of rodents was 1,300.

time to New Or' Assistant Surgeon-Genet'

tin Its deadly pro- al Rucker follows his word

Trctle n o wmon deto of p that the eradication of bu

carbon; its weapon of carbonon plague means the

offense is the hose and teradication o rodents by

noasle; and It powder is bncpau meserdia o t hoe

coke which buaIs p di saying that in America we

' c oke which burns In aoe have two rodents which

oed funace. Monore comprehended in the

ide of carbon is more e nt c

S deadly than shrapnel, A RAT ARD problem, the rat and the

ccasiohna ply -R ground squirrel, and appar

tim to live out his natural days and to die in bed. dnt each pi as a rov

There are no wounded to be picked up after a distinct role in the propa

ide of carbon has been at its gation and perpetuation of

wor . ty list is one of thb deqd only. The rat is distinctly do

Sh d, carry h metle in Its habits, and

is flea, from t sible for man to -

become infected wease, bubonic plague. /rA/1V'/' " 7 A P-T r~ ,&'Y- therefore come in more

S. I, nhllh he.lth sarvipa h. ilanI.A all th or lem intimate contact

commercial ports of the world as follows:

"Clean." "Suspected," "Infected." When a ship

bound for New Orleans, reaches quarantine, which

Is a good ways down the river from the Crescent

Cilg it is boarded. There, if an unusual number

of lt are found on board, or if other conditions

seem to require it, there is a sulphur fumigation.

Then the ship proceeds on its way to New Or

leans. It is then that the public health officers

take up a watch on the vessel

There have been plague rats in New Orleans.

There are certain places where rats are more

likely to succeed in getting onto a vessel

than they are at others. There is no greater de

sire that rats which possibly may be infected

shall get on to a ship than that rats in the same

possible condition shall leave it for the shore. It

is possible for precautions to be taken which will

prevent the rodents either from leaving or enter

ing the vessel. Their ordinary way of egress or

ingress is along cables or ropes which lead from

the vessel to the shore. To prevent entrance and

exit guards are attached to the ropes and no rat

is able to pass them.

When the publRc health officials find that it is

necessary to turn their monoxide of carbon bat

tery loose on a ship the hatches are battened

down, every window of every cabin is sealed, and

all the cracks of the doors are closed with paper

attached by means of flour paste. Then the Nep

tune steams up alongside, the coke in the closed

furnace is started burning and the generated

monoxide of carbon passes through a hose into

the hold of the ship until it is filled with the dead

ly gas. Then attention is turned to the cabins

and staterooms, each of which is given its full

charge of the overpowering fumes.

The vessel is left alone for six hours and then

. the hatches, doors, windows and port holes are

opened and the gas escapes. All that remains to

be done is to go in and gather up the dead rats.

The fumigating process kills not only the rats,

but everything else living that is on board and

this means everything living down to the minutest

form of animal life.

SDanger is passing quickly from New Orleans

and it is passing because not only the health au

thorities of the state and city, but those of the

'= government took hold of the situation at once

sa. saved it, if it really needed saving, sand there

S e throse who believe that if unchecked, the bu

beet Lague mighhave obtained a firm foothold.

. Wiliam C. Ru , who has been in charge at

Slew Orleans, is ex ced in antiplague work,

\

having served in San Francisco, where he was

executive ofmcer when the crusade against the

plague was instituted in that city.

The rat ship Neptune does its work on the

waterfront of cities, but it must not be supposed

that vessels alone are the habitation of rats which

may carry with them the germs of a dread dis

ease. In any city which may be suspected of har

boring rats afflicted with the plague parasite, the

crusade against the rodents is carried on in all

sections of the town where the rodents abound.

Thousands upon thousands of the rats are caught

in traps and every rat caught is tagged, so that

the place where it was taken can be known defi

nitely. The bodies of the animals are taken to

the public health laboratory and there they are

examined, the examinations sometimes reaching

the number of 1,000 a day.

Each of the dead rats is examined thoroughly

and an experienced man can tell instantly those

which appear to be affected. In tbh, case of a sus

pect, or where it is definitely determined that the

rat-actually has the disease, the tag is consulted

and the place of capture of the animal is learned.

Then the work of extermination and of fumigation

and perhaps demolition of buildings begins in the

neighborhood from which the infe'ted rat came.

Here is what Assistant Surgut~o-General Wil

liam C. Rucker has said in one brief paragraph

concerning the eradication and prevention of bu

bonic plague:

"Plague is primarily a disease o" rodents, and

secondly and accidentally, a disease of man. Man's

safety from the disease lies in the exclusion of

the rodent and its. parasites. This is the basis

of all preventive and eradicative work. If a math

can live in rodent-free surroundings he need have

no fear of plague, because if there be no rodents

there can be no rodent parasites, and for all prac

tical purposes the flea may be considered as the

common vector of the disease from rodent to

rodent and from rodent to man. The eradication

of bubonic plague, therefore, means the eradica

tion of rodents."

Now, in a layman's language, the path of the

bubonic plague from rodent to man is something

like this: A rat has the plague. Where it got it

we will say nobody knows, for the origin of the

thing is as much of a question as which came

first, the hen or the egg Every rat has fleas.

The rat which has the plague i bitten by a flea,

which absorbs the plague poioa. The rat dies,

we wiD say; the ea. lesves t and In some way

gets on to a man; the parasite is harged with

the disase and If the poisn is transmitted 'be

with man. It frequents the great highways of the

world, travels long distances in ships and occa

sionally on trains. The ground squirrel does not

live in human habitations and it makes only short

migrations. As Doctor Rucker puts it, it is al

most a negligible factor in the direct transfer of

the disease to man. The ground squirrel's great

function in the plague scheme is that of a rural

reservoir from which from time to time the dis

ease flows over to the suburban rat, thence to his

city cousin and thence to man.

In parts of the West the public health service

is conducting a crusade against the ground squir

rel. This animal looks not unlike the common

gray squirrel, and the help of the scientists of

the biologi'cal survey of the department of agricul

ture in Washington has been given to the work

of the extermination of this animal over large

tracts of land.

The public health service has given in its re

ports descriptions of the means which should be

taken to prevent the spread of the disease with

which the rodents are affected. Instructions are

given in rat-trapping, rat-proofing, in methods of

destroying rat habitations and to these are added

chapters on the natural enemy of rats, owls,

hawks, weasels, cats, dogs, ferrets and the other

creatures which either consider the repulsive rat

a delicacy or like to prey upon it from sheer love

of killing.

The country probably has little knowledge of

the constant work which is being done by the

public health service of the United States govern

ment to safeguard the people from disease and

death. The plague preventive work which has

been done is to scientists one of the most inter

esting works in the whole field of their study and

endeavor.

OUT OF COMMISSION.

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Harry-But you bought one last week

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A 8AD FAREWELL.

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thousand dollars."

fil

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Newellton, .. - oIdua

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First-class Work Done at Reasonable Rates

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Printers, Publishers and Stationers

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SRadhag Nattar

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Professional Cards.

Dr. L. A. Murdock

ST. JOSEPH, LA.

Physaician and Suragem

Office Prla Read 1

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DENTIST.

S-. JOSH, . LOUISIANA

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PHYSICIAN

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