| This past week, New York City’s Mayor, Eric Adams, took part in a long-standing, if not terribly glamorous, tradition: announcing the latest effort to reduce the local rat population. (The solution, this time, is to cut back on the number of hours that trash can be left on the curb.) It’s a worthy cause—and, if history is any guide, unlikely to solve the problem. In 1944, The New Yorker published “Thirty-two Rats from Casablanca,” an engaging overview of the city’s rodent trouble. Written by Joseph Mitchell, the piece manages to entertain despite the fact that its subject is—well, gross. New York’s rats, like most of their human counterparts, trace their ancestry overseas; the most common species, the brown rat, originated in Central Asia, “reached England around 1730,” and likely “got to this country during the Revolutionary War.” The rodents’ physical capabilities, while unnerving, are impressive: Mitchell recounts the exertions of three rats, “undoubtedly from New Jersey,” who swam across the Hudson in difficult conditions. (Despite their athleticism, they promptly met a bad end.) The exterminators of the era expressed to Mitchell a grudging respect for their foes—a sentiment that the current Mayor might want to note. “If the rats come out of their holes by the millions some night and take over City Hall and start running the city,” one exterminator said, “I won’t be the least bit surprised.” | 
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