84 
Parasitic Arthropods 
carbolic quickly disperses. At the end of this period every pedicu- 
lus and what is better, every ovum is dead and no relapse wall occur 
unless there is exposure to fresh contagion. Whitfield states that 
there seem to be no disadvantages in this method, which he has used 
for years. He has never seen carboluria result from it, but would 
advise first cutting the hair of children under five years of age. 
Pediculus corporis (= P. vestimenti ) the body louse, is larger than 
the preceding species, the female measuring 3.3 mm., and the male 
3 mm. in length. The color is a dirty white, or grayish. P. corporis 
has been regarded by some authorities as merely a variety of P. 
humanus but Piaget maintains there are good characters separating 
the two species. 
The body louse lives in the folds and seams of the clothing of its 
host, passing to the skin only when it wishes to feed. Brumpt 
states that he has found enormous numbers of them in the collars 
of glass-ware or grains worn by certain naked tribes in Africa. 
Exact data regarding the life-history of this species have been 
supplied, in part, by the work of Warburton (1910), cited by Nuttall. 
He found that Pediculus corporis lives longer than P. humanus under 
adverse conditions. This is doubtless due to its living habitually 
on the clothing, whereas humanus lives upon the head, where it has 
more frequent opportunities of feeding. He reared a single female 
upon his own person, keeping the louse enclosed in a cotton-plugged 
tube with a particle of cloth to which it could cling. The tube was 
kept next to his body, thus simulating the natural conditions of 
warmth and moisture under which the lice thrive. The specimen 
was fed twice daily, while it clung to the cloth upon which it rested. 
Under these conditions she lived for one month. Copulation com¬ 
menced five days after the female had hatched and was repeated a 
number of times, sexual union lasting for hours. The female laid 
one hundred and twenty-four eggs within twenty-five days. 
The eggs hatched after eight days, under favorable conditions, 
such as those under which the female was kept. They did not 
hatch in the cold. Eggs kept near the person during the day and 
hung in clothing by the bedside at night, during the winter, in a cold 
room, did not hatch until the thirty-fifth day. When the nymphs 
emerge from the eggs, they feed at once, if given a chance to do so. 
They are prone to scatter about the person and abandon the frag¬ 
ment of cloth to which the adult clings. 
