182 VEGETABLE PARASITES. 



the removal of the hair is effected by means of sticking plasters, 

 a method which has justly fallen into discredit, on account of its 

 barbarism, and, after all, the uncertainty of success. 



2. Epilation by means of a pair of pincers, according to the 

 plan of Samuel Plumbe. 



3. Epilation by means of combs and fingers, according to the 

 brothers Mahon, after having rubbed the hairy parts \vith certain 

 ointments (studiously held secret), with the ball of the thumb. 

 The hair was torn out with the fingers, as the feathers of geese 

 are when stripped. On the whole this is a method little to be 

 recommended. 



4. Epilation produced by the disease itself, which is the best 

 means, according to Bazin. 



The ordinary epilatory means act only mechanically on the 

 hair-bulbs, not chemically ; they act the better, and excite 

 the more, the coarser the remedies are powdered. Marion's 

 ointments are therefore not more efficient than those made of 

 powdered charcoal, chalk, or fullers' earth. Liver of sulphur 

 exerts the most powerful chemical action on the hair; as even 

 dead bodies, exposed to the air, lose their hair after being treated 

 for twelve hours with it, whilst, however, the inter-cutaneous part 

 of the hair remains unaltered. 



If the favus be fresh, and if the hairs resist the attempts to 

 remove them by means of a pair of pincers, they require to be 

 rubbed for several days with an alkaline ointment (according to 

 Bazin, with ' ' chaux vive, soude du commerce, au 2 grammes; 

 axonge, 60 grammes"), or also with a small addition of auripig- 

 mentum, or the oil of the acajou-nut (J 1 gramme to 30 

 grammes of fat), or, what I consider to be better, with " huile 

 de cade." The latter keeps alive the sensibility of the parts of 

 the head covered with hair, and acts more especially on the bulbs 

 of the hair. Epilation effected by such means removes the hairs 

 and their capsules, but there still remain spores of the parasite 

 in the follicles. Epilation alone would therefore give but very 

 uncertain results, and not be sufficient, or, perhaps, produce a 

 merely momentary relief, whilst it does not prevent relapses. 

 Even the method of the brothers Mahon did not prevent them, 

 or they were only successful after treatment for six, twelve, or 

 eighteen months. The brothers Mahon have chiefly been blamed 

 for having purposely confounded favi with eczema, lichen, or 

 psoriasis, and, more particularly, Porrigo scutulata with Porrigo 



