112 LICE AND THEIR MENACE TO MAN 



contract the complaint, and why with more 

 modern methods of cleansing the patients on 

 admission to hospital this so rarely happened ; 

 why those who first handled a patient or his 

 rejected clothing were so likely to develop it ; 

 why it was dangerous to sit on the bed of a 

 typhus case ; why cold rooms containing the 

 patients were less dangerous to those entering 

 than hot stuffy ones in which lice would be prone 

 to wander ; why sporadic cases were not un- 

 common among dealers in old clothing. The 

 larger aspects of the epidemiology of the disease 

 also became clear. In the great epidemics the 

 people who had been most attacked were those 

 who lived under congested conditions, and people 

 of the tramp class. These are just the ones 

 most liable to harbour lice. Those living in one 

 house might be attacked and those in an adjoining 

 house spared, if they were not on friendly terms 

 and interchanging visits, that is, if there was 

 no opportunity for the passage of lice between 

 them. Epidemics were worse in winter than in 

 summer, and this is the season when lice are 

 most numerous, because clothing is changed less 

 frequently and bathing is less freely indulged 

 in ; people keep more indoors ; crouch close 

 together over fires ; sleep in close proximity, 

 wearing all their clothing, in order to keep warm 

 by night as well as by day. The typhus amon^ 

 the natives of Cape Colony was more prevalenl 

 also in the winter, when they slept in huts. 



