Originally Posted by
Trevor Johnson
I don't think anyone had the kind of microbiological knowledge needed to use them as disease vectors,
Hmm... I've read that during the middle ages, carcases of animals and even humans believed to have died of plague were catapulted over city walls during sieges. I don't know if all of these corpses would have actually been contagious, but I'm sure that the attackers believed that they were, and that having a plague-corpse hurled into a sealed-off city did little to improve local moral. I wonder if the rats could have been used in a similar way; it might all hinge on whether or not the Japanese of the time associated rats with disease.
David Sims
"Cuius testiculos habes, habeas cardia et cerebellum." - Terry Pratchet
My opinion is, in all likelihood, worth exactly what you are paying for it.