326 On Plica Polonica. 
a degree of Phthiriafis is produced, and the head 
contracts an extremely foetid fmell, to which how- 
ever the Polifh Peafante are fo much accuftomed that 
they endure it without complaint, or any manifeft 
inconvenience, 
It is alfo an opinion univerfally prevalent with 
them, that the difeafe is a falutary effort of nature 
to expel a morbid matter from the body; and that 
to interrupt the courfe of it would be productive of 
imininent danger; hence ‘they make no attempt to 
cure, or even palliate the complaint, And if we 
may repofe confidence in Authors of eftablifhed 
reputation, morbid affections of a fimilar nature to 
thofe which precede its occurrence, paralyfis, and 
even death itfelf, have fucceeded imprudent attempts 
to check the progrefs of the difeafe. In this refpect, 
Plica bears fome analogy to the exanthemata, and 
various chronic cutaneous eruptions. 
{ am as yet unable to decide whether this com- 
plaint is hereditary or not. From fome obfervations 
indeed it appears, that a predifpofition to it may be 
_tranfmitted from parents to their offspring; but 
my information on this head is too limited to 
afcertain the point, In one cafe which fell under 
my own obfervation, two brothers had Plica, both 
on the left fide of the head, and in about one third 
of their hairs: I learned from them, that their 
father and grandfather had alfo been affected with 
the difeafe in a form exactly fimilar. 
. Befides 
