256 HALF-AN-HOUR AT 



from eggs and insects. The left eyebrow and lashes were also 

 unaffected. 



" The patient was not conscious of anything amiss with the 

 right eye, and did not appear to suffer any inconvenience from the 

 presence of the insects." 



Dalrymple (" Pathology of the Human Eye") mentions his 

 having seen three cases of this complaint in children, and gives a 

 representation of the eyelashes, but not of the insect, although he 

 calls the disease Phthiriasis. Wedl (" Grundziige der Pathologis- 

 chen Histologie "), in describing the Fhthirius, says that it is met 

 with in the hair of the pubes, axilla, breast, and eyebrows. I 

 have been unable to find a representation of an insect actually 

 taken from the eyelashes. 



" The insect represented in Plate IX., Fig. 2 (a most careful 

 figure, corresponding in every respect to the insect before us, and 

 perfect), was taken from the eyelashes and mounted in glycerine, 

 and will be seen to be a well-marked specimen of the Common 

 Crab-Louse, or Fhthirius. In Fig. 4 is seen the ordinary appear- 

 ance of the eggs as seen with a magnifying power of 80 diameters. 

 In Fig. 5 (our Fig. 5) the egg has been rendered transparent by 

 glycerine, and examined with a power of 130 ; in this the foetal 

 louse is distinctly seen. The lashes were found to have on them 

 from one to five eggs. The latter are pear-shaped and cemented 

 by their narrow ends to the shafts of the hairs with a transparent 

 cement. The broad end of the egg has a lip, to which is attached 

 a conical lid, studded with little nodular processes. This falls off 

 when the foetus is fully developed. The egg is lined throughout 

 with a membrane (chorion), which contains the foetus. The lice 

 were found adhering closely to the cuticle at the roots of the 

 lashes, and considerable force was required to dislodge them. 



" On close investigation, the patient was found to have the 

 Fhthirius in the hair of the pubes, and of the axilla, and the 

 Fediculus capitis in that of the head. At a subsequent visit, an 

 egg, resembling those of the Fhthirius, was found in the right 

 eyebrows, as also a Fhthirius in the lashes of the right lower lid. 



" The particulars of this case clearly illustrate the fact that the 

 louse which infests the eyelashes is the Fht/iirius, although the 

 Fediculus capitis may exist at the same time in the head. 



"The treatment consisted in cutting off the eyelashes as 

 closely as possible and painting the edges of the lids with a 

 strong solution of bichloride of mercury. After two operations 

 the patient reported herself cured." To this the editor appends a 

 note, as follows : — " She only answered by her daughter, and as 

 she did not appear herself again at the hospital the ctire could not 

 be completed. It is the more unlikely that she will be free from 

 the complaint even in the eyelids, since it has been remarked that 



