Plagues, Poisons, and Dead Rats: A Multispecies History

Anglo-European history is full of failed attempts to eradicate increasingly global rat populations—primarily through cats and poisons—in the name of human health. Focusing on shipboard rats, this chapter traces some of this history from Robinson Crusoe and eighteenth-century maritime literature to the late nineteenth century, when, after germ theory, the fumigation of incoming ships became best practice. Seeking to bring together animal studies, ecological studies, and the medical humanities, it considers the possibility of a multispecies, ecological approach to our real and imagined “vermin problem”.