ANOPLURORUM BRITANNIA. 17 



species, and is readily distinguished from the former by its 

 whiter colour and generally larger size. Although the Fed. 

 Capitis, as I have stated, will spread over the body, I have 

 never seen or heard of the Vestimenti being found any 

 where but on the body, of course I include the linen in 

 contact with the same. The sudden appearance of these 

 creatures in vast numbers, in places where they were not 

 known before, and upon individuals previously free from 

 such companions, is a circumstance not easy to account for ; 

 nor have I ever heard a plausible solution of the problem. 

 This, like many other occurrences, has been viewed by the 

 superstitious, and is still, as the prognostication of some 

 impending evil, as sickness or misfortune, &c. to the indi- 

 viduals so visited. Without endeavouring to clear up the 

 mystery, I can only bear testimony to the fact of their 

 sudden occurrence, having known an instance where this 

 species appeared in such quantities that it was necessary to 

 cleanse the bed-linen twice a day for several days, at each 

 of which visitations there appeared no visible decrease in 

 their numbers, though at last they as suddenly disappeared. 

 A late medical friend of mine* held the opinion that the 

 Pediculi migrate, and stated to me the following fact in 

 confirmation of his belief. " His father, who was also a 

 medical practitioner in the West Riding of Yorkshire for 

 fifty years, had frequently in the course of his practice to 

 enter the cottages of the poor in his neighbourhood, (i. e. 

 colliers and cloth- weavers) ; on one occasion, having a case 

 which required his attendance near the bed for about half 

 an hour, he found himself on his return home literally 

 swarming with these gentry, both his coat and waistcoat 

 and beneath the collar of the former ; to use his own words, 

 <{ you might have actually scooped them out with a tea- 



* Mr. Swinilen of Morley, near Leeds. 

 C 



