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Show RATS CARRY LEPROSY QERM8. American Ports Threatened with New Scourae, 8ayt Official, Washington. That rats carry tho gorms of leprosy Is tho discovery mndo by Dr. Guorgo McCoy, assistant of tho marine hospital service Ho dwells at length on tho subject In u report received by Surgeon Gcncrnl Wyman, Tho experiments woro mnde In San Francisco, whero the government Is assisting tho stnlo nnd city authorities In killing the rodents that nro blnmod for tho appearnnco of tho bubonlo plague thero moro thun a year ago. The danger lies In tho fact that the disease, In tho opinion of Dr. McCoy, Mc-Coy, In nil probability, Is transmissible transmis-sible to human beings, nnd ns leprosy Is not a local scourgo, but flourlshos In tho temperate nlmost ns well as In tho torrid zones, tho menace to practically prac-tically all the ports of tho United StntcB Is equally grave Itats Infectod with tho disease nnd escaping from vessels from tho orient putting In nt Now York or Philadelphia can Bpread as much of tho disease ns Is posslblo In San Francisco. Experiments aro being mado to provo tho trunsmlsslhlllty of tho scourge. Several rats havo boon Inoculated In-oculated with tho germs and they are now being carefully obsorved, |