at the expiration of three years, what do you suppose will be the amount
of living rats? Why, no less a number than SIX HUNDRED AND FORTY-SIX
THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND EIGHT! Mr. Shaw's little dog 'Tiny,' under
six pounds weight, has destroyed TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND
TWENTY-FIVE pairs of rats, which, had they been permitted to live,
would, at the same calculation, and in the same time, have produced ONE
THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE MILLIONS, ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY
THOUSAND, TWO HUNDRED, living rats! And the rats destroyed by Messrs.
Shaw and Sabin in two years, amounting to SEVENTEEN THOUSAND pairs,
would, had they been permitted to live, have produced, at the above
calculation, and in the same time, no less a number than TEN THOUSAND
NINE HUNDRED AND NINETY-FIVE MILLIONS, SEVEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIX
THOUSAND, living rats! Now, let us calculate the amount of human food
that they would destroy. In the first place, my informants tell me, that
six rats will consume day by day, as much food as a man; secondly, that
the thing has been tested, and that the estimate given was, that eight
rats would consume more than an ordinary man. Now, I--to place the thing
beyond the smallest shadow of a doubt--will set down ten rats to eat as
much as a man, not a child; nor will I say any thing about what rats
waste. And what shall we find to be the alarming result? Why, that, the
first pair of rats, with their three years' progeny, would consume in
the night more food than SIXTY-FOUR THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED AND EIGHTY men
the year round, and leaving eight rats to spare! And the rats destroyed
by the little wonder 'Tiny,' had they been permitted to live, would, at
the same calculation, with their three years' progeny, have consumed as
much food as ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY THREE MILLIONS, THREE HUNDRED AND
NINETEEN THOUSAND AND TWENTY men: above two-thirds of the population of
Europe!!"

Here we come to the great glory of our author's thoughts. After its
master, the rat-catcher of "manly bearing and refined sentiments of
honor," "Tiny" is his true hero. Eclipse might lord it at Epsom or
Newmarket; Tom Thumb might trot to renown at sixteen miles an hour, but
what was that compared with the triumphs of Tiny? the killer of rats who
might have had a family capable of eating (if they had found it) as much
victuals or more than one hundred and sixty millions of men? Our writer
proposes a solid gold collar testimonial for the "good" dog