110 XAXriiAL HISTORY PA1'EU.<. 



Imrned. The i)hil()S()phor Pherocydes, the dictator Soyl- 

 \a, AL^-ij)]);!, L^ideiiiis Maxiinns, and many other noted 

 men died in a siinihir maimer. It is also recorded in an- 

 thentic liistory that some families of distinction throM<.di 

 many *ienerations were always attacked Just before death 

 with these jjarasites ; and were always certain that when 

 lice came upon them that their end was near. An au- 

 thentic case is related in l*ortii;ral, of a nohh'man that 

 was attacked uitii lice in such a maimer that it required 

 two servants continually to carry awa}' and throw into the 

 sea the vermin tliat escaiu'd from the head of their rojal 

 master. I am aware that some of those cases seem more 

 like iiction than fact, or wouhl if the testimony of emi- 

 nent physicians of our time did not sul)stantiate them. 



Wilson a celebrated Kuiilisli physician in 1M()5, says : 

 "I have sometimes in maliirnant fevers found the bodies 

 of my patients teeming with lice, even when the powers 

 of life were scarcely sutticient to presen'e the body from 

 decomposition. They Avould many times come on in a 

 few hours so as to ((nnpletely cover the skin, even on 

 persons of cleanly habits." I am inclined to believe that 

 certain sta<rnant conditions of the fluids of the bodj' are 

 favorable for their rei)roduction. AVe have the testimony 

 also of Sir Benjamin lirodie, that once when openintj^ a 

 tumor he found it not full of pus as he expected, but full 

 of lice. 



But man is not alone afflicted with parasites, almost ev- 

 ery beast, bird, or tish has its peculiar species ; and as we 

 come down to microscopic vision even these lice them- 

 selves have f/ieir parasites and through this entire range 

 there are variation and points of peculiar interest, but it 

 would require a book to trace their histories. 



( Continued. ) 



