APTERA. 3 1 



inflammation may ensue. For this reason, operators who are re- 

 nowned for their skill are much sought after, flattered, and rewarded 

 by the poor negroes of the plantations. 



The Head Louse (Pediculus capitis, Fig. 18) is an insect with a 

 flat body, slightly transparent, and of greyish colour, 

 spotted with black on the spiracles, soft in the middle, 

 and rather hard at the sides. The head, which is oval, 

 is furnished with two thread-like antennae, composed 

 of five joints, which are constantly in motion while 

 the creature is walking ; it is also furnished with two 

 simple, round, black eyes ; and lastly, with a mouth. 

 In the front of the head is a short, conical, fleshy 

 nipple. This nipple contains a sucker, or rostrum, 

 which the animal can put out when it likes, and which, 

 when extended, represents a tubular body, terminating magnified. 

 in six little pointed hooks, bent back, and serving to 

 retain the instrument in the skin. This organ is surmounted by four 

 fine hairs, fixed to one another, and seated in its interior. It is by 

 means of this complicated apparatus that the louse pricks and sucks 

 the skin of the head. The thorax is nearly square, and divided into 

 three parts by deep incisions. The abdomen, strongly lobed at 

 the sides, is composed of eight rings, and is provided with sixteen 

 spiracles. The limbs consist of a trochanter, a thigh, a shank, and 

 a tarsus of a single joint, and are very thick. A strong nail, which 

 folds back on an indented projection, thus forming a pincer, ter- 

 minates the tarsus. It is with this pincer that the louse fastens 

 itself to the hair. 



Lice are oviparous. Their eggs, which remain sticking to the hair, 

 are long and white, and are commonly called " nits." The young 

 are hatched in the course of five or six days ; and in eighteen days 

 are able to reproduce their kind. Leuwenhoek calculated that in 

 two months two female lice could produce ten thousand ! ^ Other 

 naturalists have asserted that the second generation of a single indi- 

 vidual can amount to two thousand five hundred, and the third, to a 

 hundred and twenty-five thousand ! Happily for the victims of these 

 disgusting parasites, their reproduction is not generally to this pro- 

 digious extent. 



Many means are employed to kill lice. Lotions of the smaller 

 centaury or of stavesacre, and pomatum mixed with mercurial oint- 

 ment, are very efficacious. But the surest and easiest remedy is to 

 put plenty of oil on the head. The oil kills the lice by obstructing 

 their tracheae, and thus stopping respiration. 



