40 LICE AND THEIR MENACE TO MAN 



Council caused the beds in some common lodging- 

 houses, which were largely used by people of 

 the tramp class, to be examined weekly. 

 Throughout a year, in the different months, from 

 12 to 31 per cent of the beds were found to 

 contain lice ; the numbers being higher in winter 

 and lower in summer. Incidentally the result 

 of his inspection over a number of years was 

 to reduce these percentages to less than five, 

 owing to the increased care engendered in the 

 keepers of the houses. There is no reason why 

 lice should not lay eggs on blankets, since they 

 do so on the outer garments to which blankets 

 correspond during the night. Peacock (1) records 

 an instance of seeing a nit in this position. Beds 

 unused for several weeks might therefore harbour 

 lice, since the hatching of the eggs may be retarded 

 by cold and the incubation completed later. 



Lice also spread by means of garments, and 

 this is probably the main source of spread in 

 armies, where clothing is largely communal 

 property. It has been repeatedly noticed that 

 when lousy garments are discarded the lice are 

 liable to congregate outside them and these are 

 very likely to get on to clean clothing which 

 comes in contact with them. They have also 

 been observed to creep out of the necks of kit- 

 bags and may in this way pass on to clean kits. 

 The ordinary processes used in a laundry do not 

 necessarily kill lice and their eggs, since the water 

 is often not of the lethal temperature and soaking 



