TREATMENT 29 



days, 1 each. The deaths in the later days followed periods 

 of stupor with little or no fever but with persistent eruption. 



12. TREATMENT 



Our treatment consisted in a routine planned to provide for 

 rest and comfort so far as possible with supporting and sympto- 

 matic measures. The chlorine injection treatment described 

 by Danielopolu (1919, p. 335) had not come to our attention. 

 Although preparations were made to try the therapeutic value 

 of the serum of convalescents in larger doses than have been 

 employed by previous investigators these could not be com- 

 pleted before it was necessary to depart. 



All cases admitted to our Division were submitted to a 

 second delousing process more complete than that practiced on 

 admission to the hospital. To this we attribute the non-occur- 

 rence of typhus in workers and visitors in our wards. Each 

 patient was stripped on a stretcher on which he was brought to 

 the Division and all clothes and bedding brought with him were 

 returned at once on the same stretcher to the ward from which 

 he came. On a special table covered with a white rubber sheet 

 all body hairs were clipped close below the nit-bearing level and 

 this clipping was supplemented by shaving about the pubes 

 and anus where body lice as well as pubic lice were often found 

 concealed in the hair. The sheet was then removed with all 

 hair carefully folded in it, and the hair washed into a pail and 

 boiled. The patient was then bathed thoroughly with soap and 

 water with the exception of the head. After drying, the head, 

 axillae, and the pubic and anal regions were treated with a 

 mixture of kerosene and "lightwood oil," * equal parts, which 

 was also rubbed more lightly over the remainder of the body. 

 The heads of patients were clipped and treated with oil without 



1 "Lightwood oil" is a light tar oil produced from wood by the Department of Pro- 

 pellants, British Ministry of Munitions, during the war. It was recovered from the top of 

 crude pyroligneous liquors produced in the distillation of wood. It is not an ordinary 

 product of commerce. Its efficiency according to Mr. Bacot is probably due to the pres- 

 ence of creosote, a low surface tension, and possibly an acid reaction. Mr. Bacot has 

 obtained favorable results from experiments in which he tested the effect of "lightwood 

 tar oils" obtained in commerce upon pcdiculi. They were cheap and efficient. They 

 were used pure or, usually, mixed with other oils. 



