Major  Lalor  put  forward  Captain  Brayne's  views.  They  ran  along  two
lines.  In  the  first  place  he  thought  that  plague  in  a  place  generally  starts
about  the  same  time  every  year.  It  establishes  a  crisis  among  rats,  but  after
a  certain  number  have  been  destroyed  it  stops.  His  idea  was  to  establish  an
artificial  crisis  among  rats  a  month  or  so  before  it  would  ordinarily  take
place  and  to  slaughter  as  many  as  possible ;  the  rat  population  might  thus  be
reduced  to  such  a  number  that  plague  would  not  take  place.  This  contention
had  not  been  finally  proved.  The  second  line  of  argument  was  that  it  is  not
possible  to  render  dwelling  houses  rat-proof  at  reasonable  cost,  but  is
possible  to  render  them  "  ratable,"  i.e.,  constructed  of  such  material  that  rats
cannot  find  cover,  and  must  be  discovered  if  boxes  and  other  movables  are
removed.
The  unanimous  view  of  the  conference  was  in  favour  of  the  view  put
forward  by  Major  Glen  Liston,  supported  by  Surgeon-General  Bannerman
and  Sir  David  Semple,  that  it  was  essential  that  there  should  be  close  co-
operation in  the  future  between  the  laboratory  worker,  the  sanitarian  and
the  clinician.
Major  Glen  Listori  said  that  he  would  experiment  on  the  breeds  of  rats
mentioned  by  Colonel  Dyson.
ALL-INDIA  SANITARY  CONFERENCB.  17

Captain  Ju^ice  in  introducing  his  paper  (Appendix  17)  on  tHe  pass-
porting  of  grain  and  grain  gunny  bags  from  localities  infected  with  plague
stated  that  the  subject  of  the  importance  which  grain  bears  in  the  dissemina-
tion of  plague  might  perhaps  be  investigated  by  the  Plague  Commission,  and
that  experiments  on  the  transportation  of  fleas  in  gunny  bags  and  grain
might  be  carried  out.
