Neighbors in Charleston, South Carolina, were awakened by the screams of a baby left alone through the night.
When they entered the room, they found the little girl badly injured. Rats had attacked her while she slept, biting her legs so severely that some of the wounds reached the bone.
The child was rushed to Roper Hospital, where she was treated for the horrific injuries.
The 1908 newspaper account offered few details about what happened afterward, but the scene neighbors discovered was disturbing enough to make news far beyond Charleston.
Baby’s Legs Gnawed By Rats
CHARLESTON, South Carolina. — Her legs frightfully bitten by rats, a little girl is in the Roper Hospital suffering agony from her wounds. While her mother went on an all-night visit, the child was left alone in a room and rats made bold by the silence of the sleeping baby, ate her flesh.
The wounds are below the knees and in some places the flesh was gnawed to the bone. One big toe hung by a mere thread.
Attracted by the screams of the infant, neighbors hastened o the room where they found the child.
Source: The Ocala Evening Star. Ocala, Fla. May 30, 1908.
