DISINFESTATION 47 



for half an hour, and after assuming it, it was as 

 lousy as ever. Others will assert that, after their 

 clothing had been officially disinfested in the 

 ovens, in a day or two they were as bad as before. 

 Such tales, arising from misapprehension, spread 

 about among the civil population will give them 

 too an idea of the difficulties of destroying the 

 pest. The explanation of these statements is 

 that often in the past disinfestation has not been 

 thoroughly carried out. At first it was the 

 custom to treat shirts only, leaving all the other 

 garments untouched and often very verminous. 

 Later the importance of treating all the clothing 

 was realised, but no attention was paid to the 

 bodies of the men, the hair of which might 

 harbour both lice and nits, most of which were 

 undamaged by the bath which always accompanies 

 the treatment. In the new era of things the 

 bodies as well as the clothing are beginning to be 

 cleaned, and great improvement may be expected. 

 Moreover the heating of the clothing at times may 

 have been faultily or carelessly done. The cloth- 

 ing may have been packed so closely in the hot 

 chamber that though the specified time was 

 allowed to the load the heat has not had time to 

 penetrate throughout the mass. Another fault 

 has often been that it was considered impractic- 

 able to treat all the men who associated closely 

 together at one and the same time. Thus 

 cleansed men might sleep close to one who had 

 not been treated, with the result of immediate 



