The Story of Rats: Their impact on us, and our impact on them by S. Anthony
Barnett, Allen & Unwin, A$24.95, ISBN 1865085197, available from
Allen & Unwin, Sydney. Email: info@allenandunwin.com
NO ONE sent for the rat catcher when wild Norway rats turned up at Clark
University in Massachusetts in 1894. Instead, the resident scientists were
delighted. They recruited the Rattus norvegicus arriving in their lab to tease
out the connections between diet and alcoholism. These rough-and-ready rodents
did the job, but were replaced a year later by the ultimate animal model: the
domesticated white Norway rat.
Since then, rats and…
