CHAPTER VIII 



THE INCREASED MIGRATION OF BODY-LICE 

 IN FEVERS 



SOME experiments to study the migration of 

 body-lice from one person to another under 

 certain conditions were carried out by Major W. 

 Byam, R.A.M.C., and the author at the New 

 End Military Hospital, Hampstead, in connec- 

 tion with the investigations into the etiology of 

 trench fever. As the results of these experi- 

 ments have not previously been published they 

 are given in detail here. 



Several writers have drawn attention to the 

 unusual activity of lice when exposed to tempera- 

 tures higher than those to which they are ordi- 

 narily accustomed. We observed that when lice 

 in the glass - bottomed pill - boxes covered by 

 chiffon were being fed on a man in a fever they 

 did not remain on the chiffon against the skin, 

 as they usually do after they have fed, but 

 migrated into the upper parts of the boxes against 

 the glass, as far away from the heat as they could 

 get. What would be the behaviour of the lice 



